Only You
by Tsunami-Saotome
Summary: Nadoka finds out that Ranma finally pick a girl. Then suffers an emotional breakdown. How will that effect Ranma and his choosen? RanKas
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: I don't own Ranme 1/2 and am doing this for the fun of it. 

Author's Notes (3/4/05): Sorry this is not an update just some minor spelling and grammar editing. I would like to thank the people who pointed out my misspelling of Nodoka's name. I would really like to thank DelShalDar for taking the time to edit my story. I will be updating as soon as I get back into the mood to continue this story. I been watching to many anime lately that have been making me sad (Chrono Crusade and Saikano). On a good note (or bad if you really really want me to update) I got some new anime to watch (Pita Ten and Futakoi). Hopefully they'll put me in a better mood, so I can continue this story.

Only you...

By TsunamiSaotome

The night was cool, calm and quite, but to anyone who knew Nerima, they knew that the peace was not to last. The center of the chaos, Ranma Saotome, sat on the roof of the Tendo dojo. He just sat there relishing in the calm before the storm known as his life started over again. Tonight was different from all of the nights that he had done this before. Tonight he realized that his heart had finally chosen. He would never admit it, but he was scared of making a choice. It scared him that he had finally picked someone, but what scared him even more was who he picked. His pondering was cut short as he heard someone trying to get his attention.

"Ranma?"

Ranma looked down, and saw his mother looking at him with concern in her eyes. He had to smile. Ever since coming into his life, she had been one of the few points of happiness in his life. Jumping down and landing on the ground he answered his mother.

"Yes mom."

Nodoka looked at her son, and had to smile. She had been out of his life for so long that she sometimes felt that she was not his mother. Hearing him call her mom always brought a smile to her face. Nodoka was very concerned about her son tonight. While the Tendo family and her son was enjoying the dinner she had prepared tonight, she had noticed that Ranma was distracted and more quite then usual. She had decided then that she would ask her son what was bothering him. She motioned for him to sit beside her.

"Is something bothering you? You seem to be distracted."

Ranma was about to opened his mouth to say that nothing was wrong with him, but held back. Ranma was not sure what to do. Part of him wanted to deny his mother's request, and try to solve his problems on his own. The other part of him wanted to tell her everything. He stayed silent as he tried to come to a decision.

Nodoka saw the confusion on her child's face, and decide to say something.

"Son…Ranma I know that I have not a very good mother, and for that I am very sorry." Nodoka took a breath to steady herself, "I was never there to help you before. Please let me help you, or at the very least let me get to know my son."

Ranma watch his mother as she spoke, and saw sadness swirling in his mother's eyes. Coming to a decision he nodded. He didn't know where to start, so he figured he would start with the very center of his problem.

"I finally chose."

Nodoka sat there in shock. Had she not been sitting down she would have toppled over in an undignified heap.

Taking his mothers silence as a sign to continue; Ranma forged on, and decided to tell her everything from the beginning.

"It had started last week; I had been gotten into an argument with Akane. I don't even remember what the argument with her was about, but as usual Akane hit me with her mallet. Instead of being sent through the roof I got stuck in the floor of Soun's room. While pulling myself out I noticed a notebook that was hidden underneath the floor boards. When I looked at the notebook I found it used to belong to Kimiko Tendo." Ranma then sighed, smiled and looked up into the star filled sky. "I have not, and will not read through the book, but the writing on the cover of the book caught my attention:

Kimiko Tendo

To love one must have trust, friendship and hope.

Trust is to have faith, and believe in the other. Friendship is being by one side through times of calm and times of difficulty. Hope in having a future to look forward to.

Trust, friendship and hope are the foundations of love, and without all three it is not love.

Love defined by Kimiko Tendo.

At first it didn't bother me, but as the week went on I noticed that my fiancées always talked about love one way or another. I realized I was engaged to be married; something that only people who love each other are suppose to do. As soon as I got some time alone, I tested what I felt for each of the girls against Mrs. Tendo's definition of love."

"What did you find?" replied a captivated Nodoka.

"I didn't bother with Kodachi because she's a psycho and doesn't have a real claim on me."

"First I tried with Shampoo." Ranma said, "I can't trust her. First off, my first memories of her were when she was trying to kill me. Even when she found out I was a guy Shampoo and Cologne tried to use magic, tricks and threats to try to get me married to her. She tries to gain my love, but it's not to be by my side. She does it to gain prize; she does stand by my side, but I do consider her a friend." Ranma sighed again, and looked to the ground, "I have no hope for the future if I do choose her. I don't want to be a second rate citizen in a small village."

As Nodoka listened she could not find anything wrong about her son's conclusions about the purple-haired girl.

"Ukyo…." Ranma took a breath and continued "I used to think that I could trust her, but now I'm not sure. I trusted her because of the friendship that we had. When I thought about it she seems to use our childhood friendship as leverage over the other girls. Because of that she has lost a lot of my trust. Losing all that trust has made our friendship feel weak. It's nowhere as strong as it was all of those years ago. Hope. With Ukyo I have no hope. I don't want a future where all I do is say 'Do you want fries and a drink with that?' I want something more."

Nodoka nodded thinking that she did not want that kind of life for her son.

"Akane…."

As her son said her name Nodoka noticed his eyes clouded with emotion. She saw sadness and anger warring in his blue eyes.

"Akane…." Ranma closed his eyes and continued, "She rarely trust me. After all I've done for her she doesn't trust me. Whether I'm in or out of her sight she accuses me of being unfaithful to her. She hits me that damn mallet of hers for every little detail or word I say; sometimes, I think that she hits me for no reasons at all. As for friendship…."

As Ranma said friendship Nodoka noticed that Ranma's eyes had froze over and unconsciously shivered.

Ranma noticed that his mother had shivered and looked over at her. The ice in his eyes replaced with concern.

"If your cold we can go inside." his voice now laced with concern.

Nodoka smiled as she felt a warmth swell up in her, "I'm alright please continue."

Ranma nodded. The coldness in his eyes had returned, but it wasn't as bitter as before. "Friendship Akane lost that the first day we met. When Akane first offered it to me, it was the first time in years I truly felt happy. Then as quickly as I received it, that happiness was taken away. Maybe that was the first time, unconsciously, I started to resent her. It wasn't much, but the seed had been planted. Over the years all the mistrust, beatings and cruel words caused the seed has grown to something much more. It maybe hate, it may not be… all I know is that the only future I see with her is my own grave."

Nodoka was in shock. She knew that something was disturbing him, but didn't know that his feelings ran this deep. Before she could speak Ranma cut her off.

"Do you know those tragic love stories where either the guy or girl kills themselves because they couldn't be together?"

Nodoka slowly nodded and kept silent.

"I originally thought couples in those movies were stupid. At the time I figured that since I had to leave everyone I cared for behind…" Ranma looking at his mother starting to tremble tenderly reached out, and grasped her hand squeezing it slightly continued, "but I was able to keep going. I thought that they should be able to keep going too."

Ranma looked down at his hand that was holding his mothers.

"But now I find myself in a similar situation because I rather die then marry and of my fiancées. I want to be with her and only her, so now I think understand what each of those couples was going through."

Using her free hand Nodoka cupped his chin raising his head until his eyes met hers, and asked the question that had been bothering since the beginning of the conversation.

"Who is she?"

Watching him Nodoka felt her being fill with joy as Ranma's eyes seem to glow with joy at the mere mention of this girl's name.

A smile graced his face as he as he spoke with confidence.

"Kasumi"

Nodoka smiled as thought of grandchildren graced her mind. Forcing those thoughts to the side figuring that she had to help her son and can play with her grandchildren later she asked,

"Why?"

"At first I didn't consider her a girl that could possibly be my wife. It was the day after I had come to the conclusions about the other girls. I was practicing out in the backyard still thinking about what I was going to do now that I knew that I didn't love any of my fiancées, when I caught a glimpse of her face. The look she had seemed to be so wrong. It was a look of sadness and regret. The look on her face was so out of place that I lost my concentration and fell head first into the ground. I think that Kasumi forgot I had a hard head." He shot his mother an amused look as he watched his mother fail to hide a giggle. "The next thing I remember was looking into Kasumi's concerned eyes. I remember thinking she concerned about me, and…" Ranma bent his head down to try to hide his blush, but failed "she has beautiful eyes."

Nodoka was giddy with one thought, 'My little boy is in love'

"I got scared, and ran to the furo. After that the day went normally, well as normal for a day in Nerima. I was so busy that I forgot about Kasumi until I was falling asleep. Right when I was falling asleep saw Kasumi's sad face. I remember having two dreams that night. In the first dream I remember that Kasumi was a doctor, and I in charge of the dojo. The dream felt so real I can almost remember holding her in my arms, and playing with our children. In the second dream we were together, but instead of settling down we were traveling the world with our child. I remember holding my family as we slept in a tent. Also I can feel the happiness that floated off us as I taught her the art. After the second dream I woke up. After those dreams I was too distracted to fall back to sleep. At the time the two dreams I experienced had been disturbing, not only was I married to Kasumi, but I was happy. My dreams showed me that I could be happy with Kasumi, so I decided to put her through the same test I put the others through."

After a moment of silence, Nodoka urged her son to continue.

"And what did you find?"

"I found that I can trust her. She is someone I can talk to and tell her things I would be careful telling anyone else. I can tell her because I know that she will not use whatever I tell her to manipulate me in anyway. She is my friend because I can talk to her, and she will help me as much as she can without expecting anything in return. No matter what problems I have, whether if it's something that is really bothering me, or if I just want to have a normal quite talk. When I think of the dreams I had of being with her I feel happy, and have something to look forward to. The dreams may only be of a couple possible futures, but every time I think of her standing by me no matter what the future is, I have hope. But there's more I want to be with her emotionally even…" Ranma colored with a deep blush, "physically…"

Ranma hesitated for a moment to collect his thoughts also trying to get rid of his blush, and the mental pictures his words brought.

"Even that is just a little bit of what I feel. I every time I see her either doing chores, or walking to the market she is always happy, and I thought that she was almost always happy. Everything changed the moment I saw the look of regret and sadness directed at me that one day. Now that I thought about it I figured out that her cheerful demeanor and eternally happy face was a mask that she wears for the world to see. I want to see under that mask. I want to be the one she trust and care enough for her to take off that mask. I think that she can't be happy being an unmarried house wife. She is a person too, so I know she has to have her own dreams and hopes. I feel pain when I think of what she gave up to help her family, and I want to do anything to help her find her dreams again."

"When are you going to tell her? What are you going to do?"

"...nothing..." Ranma reluctantly replied

"WHAT! WHY!" was Nodoka's surprised reply.

"To her, family comes first. Even if she did come to care for me she would not admit it because it would hurt Akane." Ranma paused to try to find the right words for what he was going to say next, "For her family, Kasumi already gave up her freedom, her dreams, maybe even...her future. If it meant that she would not hurt her family, it wouldn't be hard for her to give up a man she Lo- cares for."

Nodoka sat there stunned at the words coming from her child. Nodoka could only watch as Ranma stood and awkwardly hugged her.

"Thank you for listening to me, and being my mother."

With that said Ranma released his mother from the hug, and leaped to the roof of the Tendo home then to another roof as he started to make his way to his favorite spot under the bridge. Nodoka had a lot to think about. As she turned around she saw...

"Kasumi..." Nodoka whispered

Both stared at each other in an emotional silence. Just as Nodoka was about to say something Kasumi quietly spoke, in an emotionally thick voice that made Nodoka's heart weep.

"He's right."

As Kasumi turned to retreat back to her room, Nodoka could only watch the lone tear that fell.

End of prologue

Author Notes:

This really started out as a free write, so I have no clue where its going. I think this is a AU and I dont really know what part of the time line this takes place at so don't ask. I will update as I can, I usually write when I'm board in class. Oh and this first fanfic, just a minor warning. Anyways please leave a review or E-mail me at:

tsunami(underscore)saotome(at)yahoo(dot)com

Oh and flames will be tossed into Akane's cooking. Then when they're alive be force fed her cooking to die a slow, painful death.


	2. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own Ranma 1/2 and am doing this for the fun of it. 

Author's Notes (3/4/05):  
Sorry this is not an update just some minor spelling and grammar editing. I would like to thank the people who pointed out my misspelling of Nodoka's name. I would really like to thank DelShalDar for taking the time to edit my story. I will be updating as soon as I get back into the mood to continue this story. I been watching to many anime lately that have been making me sad (Chrono Crusade and Saikano). On a good note (or bad if you really really want me to update) I got some new anime to watch (Pita Ten and Futakoi). Hopefully they'll put me in a better mood, so I can continue this story.

Only you...

By TsunamiSaotome

Nodoka woke from a near restless and disturbing sleep. Just like all of the others she had, since she had found out about Ranma's choice. She had become very happy that Ranma had finally chosen, only to be surprised when she found out that he had chosen not one of his fiancées, but Kasumi. She smiled as she recalled how happy Ranma looked as he talked about Kasumi. Her smile quickly turned into a frown as she recalled her son's following words and actions. She remembered as her happiness had changed into shock as Ranma reveled that he would not try to pursue Kasumi. Stating that even if Kasumi did hold feeling for him they would be placed behind her family. She just stood there in shock as her son left. Shock had changed in to surprise as Kasumi spoke from behind her, while Nodoka watched Kasumi leave her surprise melted into depression as she realized Kasumi had confirmed Ranma's words. Confused and depressed, Nodoka had fled back to the Saotome estate. The next day Nodoka decided that she would have Soun and her husband transfer the engagement from Akane to Kasumi. As she was leaving she saw a picture that was recently taken of herself and her son. In the picture Ranma had a hesitant smile on his face. The picture reminded Nodoka of a memory from the night before. It was similar to the smile he had when she started to talk to him. Ranma's mother then realized that her son had decided to trust her, something she had not done anything to deserve. With that thought in mind she walked back and collapsed on a chair.

"Nearly a week and I still can't come up with anything." Nodoka sighed as she was on her bed. Realizing that all this worrying wasn't doing her any good; she decided to get dressed, and go over to the Tendo home.

"At the very least I can give Ranma a bit of a break, and be able to spend some time with him." With a course determined Nodoka started to get ready.

Ranma was having a bad week. His rivals and fiancés were still the same; they were still trying to kill and/or kill him. No, his problems came from the other women in his life. His mother had not returned since his confession to her. This led him to believe that he had done something to hurt his mother. The thought of him hurting his mother had distracted him so much that it was getting harder and harder to concentrate on his day to day life. Then there was Kasumi, over the past week she seem to become colder to him. She was still nice and smiled at him, but the smile was somehow vacant and devoid of warmth. The little things that would get him through the day were becoming fewer and farther between. Small things like personally handing his meals to him, personally seeking him out to greet him or something as mundane as a quick look and smile, as if to give him the strength to continue, were less frequent. Without those little bits of hope to help him, the stress of everyday life was becoming more and more difficult to cope with. He knew that if he didn't find someway to relieve all the stress bottled in him, he was going to do something drastic and most likely, life-altering. At first he was going to talk to his mother or Kasumi about what he had done wrong, but as much as he hated to admit it, he was afraid of the answers that he might be given. So he had continued to play ignorant, hoping that he could find another way to relieve the stress by himself. At first he had tried to train beyond his extremes, but when became exhausted his emotions and fears returned with a vengeance, and because he was exhausted he wasn't able to control them, leaving them to become much worst. He had no one to go to because the two people he had hoped to rely on were the main source of his turmoil. He sighed as he heard a knock at the door.

"Coming!" Ranma yelled as he remembered that Kasumi had left earlier to go buy groceries.

As he opened the door a sense of apprehension washed over him. He stopped and took a step to the side to allow his mother in. As soon as she entered and passed him he blurted out the first thing that his mind came up with.

"I'm sorry."

"For what?" Surprise evident in Nodoka's response.

"For making you sad…" At this point Ranma's gaze was focused on the floor.

"Ranma" Nodoka said in a tender voice, "I'm not sad at what you told me, just frustrated." Nodoka saw Ranma look at her in a confused manner and decided to continue. "You found someone you may love then decided that you would not try for your own happiness. Over the last decade I have done nothing to see you happy. I have done nothing to deserve a son like you. I finally see a chance for to be happy, and I can't do anything to help. I can't do anything to see my son happy. I'm a horrible mother!" by the time Nodoka finished she had tears streaming down her face.

Ranma had panicked as soon as his mother had started to shed tears. As she continued to speak, Ranma searched his memory for a way to stop her tears. He had never been good at this stuff before, and have almost no memories of what to do. As he searched his mind, a stray thought came to him. He remembered watching a couple of guys holding girls when the girls were crying, and after a few moments the girls had calm down. He hated seeing any girl crying, but when it was someone who he cared for as much as his mother the feeling was much more intense. With his mind made up he slowly enveloped his mother in a awkward, but tender and emotional embrace.

Nodoka's silent tears turned into heart-wrenching sobs as she used her son to release years of pent-up frustration, pain, anger, and loneliness. At first Ranma was tense and silent, but as the tears continued to soak his shirt, he started to whisper comforting words to his mother. He was telling her that she was a great mother. His voice was soft and comforting as he told his mother that he was here now, wouldn't leave her, that he loved her, and no matter what he would always be her son.

Unknown to mother and son their reunion was witnessed by another. Kasumi had returned from shopping, and had witnessed the entire conversation. With a tear trailing down her face, she left Nodoka and Ranma to their own personal and private moment.

After a few minutes Ranma noticed his mother had calm down a bit. When she started to pull away he spoke.

"Mama."

Ranma waited till his mother looked at him to continue. "Ummm..." he saw that her eyes were red and puffy from crying, but he also noticed a slight smile on his mother's face.

"Yes, Ranma?"

"There was some stuff I like doing with you..." Ranma paused as he bowed his head in an effort to hide his coloring cheeks.

Nodoka sat patiently watching her son, waiting for him to finish.

"ummm... I liked cooking with you and... and was thinking that we could try again together."

Ranma's mother smiled at the request and stood up.

"Mama?"

Ranma stood as his mother grabbed on of his hands, and started to lead him into the kitchen.

"Kasumi?"

Kasumi was a bit surprised, but quickly hid it under her mask and answered.

"Yes aunty?"

"Could we help you with dinner tonight?"

Kasumi took a moment to study Nodoka then Ranma. She grabbed a cup, and filled it with cold water then replied as she hand the cup to Ranma.

"I would love to have the two of you help, Aunty."

Around dinner time everyone started to gather, led by the walking stomach Genma Saotome. One by one Nodoka and Kasumi appeared carrying food, each person they passed started to drool at the delicious scents that they inhaled. When Ranma exited the kitchen, there was a bounce in her steps as made her way to the table. Anyone who bothered to look could tell she was very happy by the way the smile on her face seem to light up the room. Akane saw the way Ranma was, and started to scowl. Instead of taking his usual seat next to Akane he sat between his mother and Kasumi. Of course this only served to receive a growl from Akane. The only one to notice this was, like always, Nabiki. Although she chose to file the action away for another time, and just for the moment, enjoy this better then average supper in front of her. For the first time in her chaotic life Ranma was feeling happiness and acceptance. She ignored everything else around her, and was savoring this new, and welcomed sensation that had blossomed within her, and was flooding her entire being. Well, his mind was ignoring everything, but he is a Saotome, so his body was on auto pilot eating his food at a slow pace (for him anyways). Soun sat there trying to turn the dinning room into an extension of the Koi pond because his eldest daughter's dinner was better then usual. Nodoka sat there basking in the happy aura her son/daughter was radiating. She let a small smile grace her features as she knew she had made the correct decision. Genma sat there and ate as he normally did, except he was fuming inside because he couldn't take any of his son's food, since Nodoka was there. Akane was busy diluting herself, and building her righteous anger at her fiancé.

Kasumi sat there, with her mask firmly in place, showing nothing of the internal conflict raging in he mind and heart. Ever since she had inadvertently heard Ranma's confession a week earlier her emotions had been at odds with each other. Her mind demanded that she stay as the mother of her family, to forget about her feelings for Ranma, and not to betray Akane. Her heart pleaded with her to give up her duty, and take a chance with Ranma. Her heart knew that Ranma cared for her, and it felt something within itself that was very powerful for the pig-tailed boy. Kasumi had really enjoyed her time with Ranma and his mother in the kitchen today, and it only fanned the flames of her internal debate.

Love or duty?

Ranma or her family?

Herself or her mask?

Near the end dinner Akane's aura was akin to a raging bon fire. Amazingly, she held herself back in order to eat, and decided she would punish Ranma after dinner. It was then that Soun decided to compliment Nodoka and Kasumi on a better than usual dinner.

"Kasumi that dinner was excellent, and the fish was…was to good for words." after finishing his compliment he proceeded to try and finish his earlier project, bursting into tears as he remembered how good the fish was.

Snapping out of her internal debate Kasumi replied, "Thank you father, but I did not make the fish. Ranma did."

'How dare people compliment Ranma on his food!' Akane thought while screaming out "Ranma you pervert!".

She leaped at him with her mallet ready to send him to Osaka. As she began her swing she saw a flash of silver. When she finished her swing she noted that Ranma was still sitting there, and the familiar weight of her mallet was a bit lighter than usual. Then with a loud -THUD-, Akane found out why her mallet seem so light as the severed mallet head was introduced to her own head. When Akane regained her senses from her malleting she saw Nodoka standing in front of Ranma with her Katana in a ready position to defend against another unprovoked attack against her son from Akane.

"Why are you attacking my son?" Nodoka snapped off in a cold and harsh voice. The rest of the household was frozen in shock because of Nodoka's retaliation against the youngest Tendo.

"Uuhhhh…" was Akane's elegant reply as she stared cross-eyed at the tip of Nodoka's katana.

Nodoka stood there in a ready stance waiting for Akane to attack her son again. Then tensed as she felt a delicate hand touch her arm. She spared a look at the hand, and fallowed it to its owner where she saw her son-turned-daughter looking at her with pleading eyes, asking her to stop. She turned to Akane, and started to glare as she put her katana back into the sheathe. Without the katana in her face Akane regained her courage and stubbornness, and answered Nodoka's question.

"He was being perverted and insulted my cooking!" was Akane's angry retort.

"My son did nothing of the sort!" Nodoka snapped back, "All he did was spend some time with me helping Kasumi make dinner and enjoying it."

As soon as Akane heard Nodoka deny her words. She stopped listening, and started to glare at Ranma. Anyone who didn't agree with her was obviously wrong. Nodoka watched as Akane started to ignore her, and turned to glare at her son. This insult enraged Nodoka, maybe it was that she was able to release her pent up frustrations earlier or maybe she was she was finally fed up with the abuse her son had to endure, but she voiced her true thoughts on the Tendo/Saotome pact.

"If this is the best this school has to offer then I should disavow this stupid pact. It is obvious that my son is not happy. Maybe I should kick my son out of the Saotome clan, so that he has to leave this horrid place. I will not watch my son marry a spoiled brat that would kill him in a matter of days after their marriage. I would gladly declare my son a ronin then have her as my daughter-in-law." Now that Nodoka had started there was no stopping her, "All she does is beat my son for the pettiest of reason, or even for no reason at all. Every time she is slighted, wronged, disagreed with, or proven wrong it is my son who is hit. She believes the words of any stranger as long as it fits into her own demented little world. She doesn't listen or even care even a bit about anything my son says. She does not trust him no matter what he does, or even what she sees. There is no ways in heaven, earth, or hell that I would approve this marriage."

Soun, by now, had filtered every word that Nodoka said. All he realized was that his baby girl was being insulted. "I will not allow you to insult my daughter. Apologize now or you will never be allowed to enter this house ever again." he screamed.

Now bow at the combined might of Soun and Genma's stupidity overrode, as it overrode one of the greatest senses on this world, Genma's survival instincts causing Genma to start to speak. "Foolish woman all that matters is the art! The school's must be joined! You are nothing, but a useless piece of trash that has already served its purpose, and has been tossed away! Ranma will marry Akane and the schools will be joined!"

When Genma started to speak Ranma watched Akane develop a smirk as she watched the women, who defied her a few moments ago, being verbally abused. When Ranma saw the smirk form on Akane's face, anger blossomed within Ranma's entire being. As Genma continued to degrade his mother his anger grow exponentially. Just when Genma was about to continue his tirade, Ranma snapped.

BOOM-

When everyone heard the noise all of the attention focused on to Ranma. Ranma had his head tilted down so no one could see her eyes. She had arcs of ki dancing all over her body; the flames wildly lashed out looking for something or someone to consume. Her red mane had broken from its restraint, ki coated each strand of hair turning them into living flames. When Ranma looked up everyone, except Nodoka who was in shock, flinched. Her hardened blue eyes appeared to pulse red. It was as if her eyes had froze, and behind those frozen eyes waves of anger crashed into that barrier hoping to breakthrough, pleading, painfully wanting to be voiced, and acted upon. As she spoke his word paralyzed every one they touched.

"The day I marry her is the day I slit my own throat."

With those words she stood up, and turned only to stop when her eyes met those of Kasumi. She stared at her, and etched her into her memory. As Ranma continued to stare Kasumi started to feel self-conscious. Ranma's eyes had changed. Behind those blue orbs there was something else trying desperately to be freed, something she could not have. Kasumi could feel part of herself savagely trying to claw its way through her own barriers. It was so close, but she couldn't; she just couldn't. She tore her eyes away from his, and squeezed them shut, frantically trying to ignore the anguished screams of her heart. As he walked away she griped the table to keep herself from getting up, and chasing after him.

"Please.."

"Please.." by now Nodoka was holding one of Kasumi's hands.

Kasumi looked at Nodoka, and was amazed. Nodoka looked so sad, tears filled her eyes threatening to fall, but were held. Here was a women who was told that she used just to make a child. Someone who found out that she had a husband, who she waited for dutifully for all these years, did not love her, and was never planning to return to her. The man she pledged her life to had thrown her away. Yet, here she was, minutes after finding out the truth, trying to be strong, trying to make her son happy. Kasumi turned away pulling her hand free, got up and started to walk away.

"NO No no.." Nodoka broke, and finally started to sob.

Everyone ignored the sobbing wreck that was Nodoka Saotome, and went off to deal with this on their own. Genma had chosen to follow Ranma. The results were a sickening crack, followed by a girlish scream, and a load thump. Soun had acted like he always would, and was trying to turn the Tendo dinning room into a lake. Akane had stormed up to her room muttering curses about a certain pig-tailed boy. Nabiki sneered as she watched Nodoka suffer for insulting her sister. Then wandered to her room trying to figure the best way to exploit what happened. Nodoka laid there sobbing till a strong hand grasped her shoulder. Looking up she saw her son nearly shedding tears as he watched her. When anguish overwhelmed her again she dove at her son, and hugged him with all of her remaining strength. Ranma, as he had done only a few hours ago, held her mother as she cried. It could have been moments or hours later, but to Ranma it didn't matter. Her mother had finally stopped her tears. As soon as she stood up he heard his mother whimper. He bent down, and whispered to her.

"Lets go home."

At first the words confused Nodoka. She lifted her tear streaked face to look at her son. The first thing she noticed was that her son was wearing his backpack, and had a gentle smile. She was still a bit confused, but focused on his backpack.

'Lets go home.' she thought 'He asked to go home with me. He wants to live with me again!' When she realized what her own thoughts meant, she grew a heart-warming smile, and nodded not trusting herself to speak. As Ranma was helping his mother up he heard a growl. Changing his face to a neutral expression, he turned to the beast.

"YOU WON'T LEAVE!" Akane screamed. Her aura flared out around her like a inferno, and kept growing as she spoke. "YOU ARE MINE, AND I CAN DO WHAT EVER I WANT TO YOU. I WILL NOT LET SOME SNOBBY PEICE OF TRASH TAKE YOUE AWAY." With her little rant said she charged with her mallet held high.

Ranma was pissed.

'I failed my mother once, I will not fail again! No one will ever speak like that to my mother again.' his thoughts raged as he got into an offensive stance fully intending to hurt Akane.

As Akane approached Ranma suddenly shifted into a defensive stance, as he felt someone rushing at him from his right. When he glanced to his right his jaw dropped along with his guard. He watch fascinated as the scene in front of him played out in slow motion. He was apparently in awe as Kasumi's fist touched Akane's jaw. He watched as the expression on Akane's face from anger to surprise to shock then finally settling on pain. Time resumed its normal pace as Ranma heard the familiar sound of flesh hitting flesh. Ranma looked on as Akane's body spun out of control only to stop when her back met the wall making spider-web-like cracks along the wall. Akane struggled to stay conscious, her eyes were clouded in disbelief and betrayal as they focused on who their attacker was. Ranma's attention switched to Kasumi as her body moved in between his eyes and Akane. Ranma noted that Kasumi was very tense, her arms were lowered to her side, and her hands were clenched so tightly that that her knuckles were turning white. Her head was tilled down far enough that some of her hair was dangling in front of her. He watched as a set of tears fell, followed by another, then another, then many more. He stood there holding his breath, waiting, waiting for whatever that is going to happen next.

"I will not let you hurt him, not again!"

Kasumi walked over to Nodoka and bowed.

"I'm sorry."

Nodoka sat there wide eyed, still stunned from Kasumi's earlier actions.

"Mama?"

Snapping out of her daze, she looked over to her son. She saw him holding up a second backpack. She looked at Ranma with a confused and questioning gaze, only to see her son's eyes flicker to Kasumi. Ranma's mother's eyes widened as she realized the answers to her unvoiced questions. Nodoka motioned for Ranma to come to her. She grabbed her son's hand along with Kasumi's hand causing both to look at her in uncertainty. Nodoka intertwined Kasumi and Ranma's fingers triggering blushes on both faces. After placing her hand on top of their intertwined hand she said, "Lets go home."

Ranma and Kasumi looked at their hands then into the eyes of each other, making their blushes deepen, and nodded. With Ranma and Kasumi's hands still intertwined, all three stood up, and left the Tendo home with the young couple trailing Nodoka as she led them to their new home.

Author Notes:

Nothing I can thing of at the moment, except no pre-reader was used. You can leave a review or e-mail me a comment at:

tsunami(underscore)saotome(at)yahoo(dot)com

Oh and flames will be tossed into Akane's cooking. Then when they're alive be force fed her cooking to die a slow, painful death.


	3. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I don't own Ranme 1/2 and am doing this for the fun of it. 

Author's Notes: I would like to thank my pre-readers DelShalDar (also his wife), and Drkjester for taking the time to proof read and give me input for this chapter. Also I used DelShalDar paragraph to describe the front of Nodoka's home because it was better than mine. Reviewer's responses are on the bottom.

Only you...

By TsunamiSaotome

The trio had been walking away from the Tendo household for a few minutes, and Nodoka was focused on getting her family to their new home. Ranma and Kasumi were still holding hands, and were blushing heavily because of it. Each of their thoughts centered on how good it felt to hold the others' hand. Kasumi and Ranma were mindlessly following Nodoka, until Ranma was pulled from his Kasumi induced haze by something bouncing off his leg. Looking down he noticed a ball, picked it up, and glanced around, he noticed a young girl running towards him. Kneeling down, he smiled as he handed the ball to her. The girl blushed as she took the ball, mumbled her thanks, then ran back to her friends. Ranma glanced around and noticed that they were in a park that was in the opposite direction of the Saotome estate.

"Mom?" Ranma called out to his mother, who had not noticed that her two companions had stopped.

"Yes?" Nodoka answered, turned around, only to be surprised as to how far she was from her son, and his love interest. Ranma briefly tightened his grip on Kasumi's hand as they walked the distance to his mother.

"Isn't the house in the other direction?" Ranma asked. Then he watched as a torrent of emotions clouded her eyes. Despair. Fear. Worthlessness. Shattered Love.

"We're going to a place that I haven't visited in the last twenty years. Genma doesn't know about it. I can't be near him. I don't want to be near him. I have to get away from him." When Nodoka finished, she was no longer the proud mother Ranma knew. This person was a frightened and lonely women that had lost everything.

Ranma started to move to comfort his mother. He felt Kasumi release his hand, and saw she had the same idea as he did. He watched Kasumi glide over to the older woman, and encircled her in a fierce, but tender embrace.

Kasumi watched the emotions play across Nodoka's face. Her thoughts were that no woman should ever feel the way Ranma's mother was now. Kasumi watched as Nodoka's emotions started to spiral out of control again and figured that the woman's fragile facade was about to fall apart, and she would break down again. Releasing Ranma's hand, she moved to tightly embrace the distraught woman. Kasumi held Ranma's mother, while Nodoka struggled to hold in tears that tried to fall. After a few tense moments Kasumi leaned in towards Nodoka's ear, and whispered.

"Ranma and I will always be with you, and love you...mother."

Nodoka started to relax, and began to pull away. When she was far enough, she grabbed and held one of Kasumi's hands in both of hers. In a warm and comforting voice said, "Thank You."

Ranma watched as one woman he loved comforted another that he loved, and smiled. He frowned as he though over his mother's words. He figured that his mother was not yet ready to confront his fa-... no, Genma. He also knew that the three of them did not want to deal with anyone in Nerima yet. If they wanted to avoid anybody from Nerima, Genma wasn't really much of an issue; it was Nabiki who was the problem. Ranma started to curse himself, since he found himself at a loss as to how to deal with Nabiki.

"-ma, Ranma..."

Shaking himself out of his thoughts, he turned to Kasumi, as she had been calling him.

"Huh? Sorry. Wha?"

Kasumi's face was neutral, no trace of her usual smile could be seen. While she was holding Nodoka, she had felt a sense of frustration coming from Ranma. She had called out to him, at first he didn't respond, but when he had finally looked up and responded, she saw his face contorted in seriousness and concentration.

"What's wrong?" Kasumi asked in a calm voice mixed with a bit of concern.

"Noth-..." Ranma had started to automatically respond, but stopped himself. 'Kasumi and mom are much smarter then I am. Maybe be they know something that could help.' with a sigh Ranma swallowed his pride, and voiced his thoughts, "Genma isn't the one we need to worry about. It's Nabiki. She could use her people and connections to find us wherever we go, and quickly too, I think."

"I think I know a way." Nodoka spoke. By now she had released herself from Kasumi, and started to walk away again.

Deciding to trust her, Ranma took Kasumi's hand again, and started to follow his mother. The pair followed her until they had reached the business district, and she stopped at a simple looking two story building. There was nothing distinguishing about the building, it was an off-white building with windows, and a white door. Nodoka motioned for the two to follow, and walked inside. The room as simple as the outside of the building. To both sides of the entrance there was a couch, and above each couch was a painting of a forest. Near the far wall in front of them was a receptionist sitting a wood desk busy on the phone. The three of them stopped in front of the lone desk, and waited for its occupant to get off the phone.

"What can I do for you Inoue-san?" the young lady asked after she hung up the phone.

"We need some transportation, but I know that we are going to be followed." Nodoka replied.

"I see. Who do you think will be following you?"

"Nabiki Tendo."

"Hmm... very well. I will tell the others, and we will handle it." The girl calmly replied back, "So where would you like to go to today?"

"My mother's summer estate."

"Alright, if you could wait about fifteen minutes your car will be ready." with that said the young secretary smiled and left the room.

Having a moment to themselves, Nodoka turned to observe the other two that came with her. Kasumi stood there as serene as ever; simply, content to be by Ranma's side. Ranma on the other hand was fidgeting, and looked like he was about to say something.

"What's wrong?" Nodoka gentle prodded.

Ranma who was holding his question since the three entered the building blurted out his question, "What is this place?"

"It's a place for people to travel discreetly, with fewer chances of being followed; all we have to do is pay a fee."

"So this could keep Nabiki from following us?" Ranma questioned.

"Yes, at least for a while."

With Ranma's curiosity satisfied. The three settled into a comforting silence, as they waited for the young receptionist to return.

"Ms. Inoue, your car is ready. Please follow me." the young receptionist said as she entered the room. The three followed the girl as she led them to a non-descript black luxury car. She opened the door and held it for her three customers.

"Thank you." Nodoka replied with a slight bow at the young girl. She, Ranma, and Kasumi then entered the car, each with a slight bow towards the girl as they entered.

"You're welcome, and please have a safe trip." with that said the young girl closed the door to the car and left.

Once the three passengers were settled, the car started up, and was driven through a series of man-made tunnels, and eventually exiting onto a road well outside of Nerima.

The three of them had remained silent up to this point, until Kasumi asked, "Where are we going?"

"We are going to my mother's home." Nodoka softly replied.

"So does that mean I'll get to meet my grandmother?" Ranma spoke with an excited voice.

With a fallen face Ranma's mother replied, "No... Mom... your grandmother died about four years ago."

"I'm so-sorry." Ranma said, managing to somehow sound meek and saddened at the same time.

Kasumi sensed that the comfortable silence they had shared a few moments ago had now become disheartening. She felt it was her fault that everyone had become miserable, so she frantically searched for anything to distract the other two from thinking about Nodoka's mother. In the end she couldn't think of anything, so she voiced the first thought that had entered her mind.

"Why did that girl refer to you as Ms. Inoue earlier?"

Nodoka sat there pondering how to answer Kasumi's question. After a few moments she decided that her son and his almost girlfriend deserved an honest answer.

"It is my maiden name. My name before I married that... thing."

When Nodoka started to speak about her ex-husband, Kasumi started to panic, and was about to change the subject again. That was until Nodoka's soft hands were placed over hers, and Nodoka continued, "Please don't, both of you need, and deserve, to hear this."

After hearing Nodoka speak, Kasumi relented and relaxed, waiting for Nodoka to continue.

"You see, when I first started dating Genma, my family didn't approve of him. They voiced their opinions about him to me, but didn't really do anything to stop me from seeing him. I think they figured it was a phase or something. I used to get into huge arguments with anyone in my family about Genma. Everyone used to tell me about the things Genma had done, and had even shown me proof of some of what he had done. I guess those who said love was blind were talking about people like me..." Nodoka paused with a humorless chuckle, "As I got closer and closer to Genma, my family was becoming colder and more distant towards me. I think watching Genma and I becoming closer finally became too much for my father to watch, because that day he and I got into an explosive argument that ended up with me eloping with Genma. When I had calmed down, I called home to apologize to father, only to find out that I had been banished from the clan. When I heard that, I had nothing else to do except follow Genma. A year and a half after that, you were born, and for our first five or six years of marriage, Genma was the ideal husband. He was always going on training trips, but had always sent or brought home money for us. I, being the obedient house wife that I was, never questioned how he got the money, but eventually we managed to save enough to buy the Saotome estate. For those few precious years we lived together as a family; until, on the saddest day of my life, you left on that ill-fated training trip. I never agreed to that stupid seppuku contract, but it was all that I had left of you; the only reminder that you would come back to me, so I kept it. I spent the next two weeks crying and breaking down at the sight, or thought, of anything that reminded me of you two. It was at the end of the second week that I found myself staring at my sister when I opened the front door. As it had been for the last two weeks, my emotions overwhelmed me, and I grabbed and held onto my sister and cried. My sister kept holding me, until I had calmed down and asked her how she knew I was here. She told me that father had found where I lived, but never had he courage to come see me. Suddenly, she asked me to go with her and started to drag me toward her car. When I asked why, she told me that our parents were dieing. It turns out that both your grandparents had been very ill for the last three years, and they wanted to see me before they passed on. My sister rushed me to the hospital, and I got one of the biggest surprises of my life. In that hospital bed was my father, once a strong and powerful man, was a withered husk. I surprised myself by crying for him. I had shed so many tears over the last few weeks that I thought I didn't have any more that could fall. As I sat there weeping my heart out, I felt his weakened hand cup my face. He told me that his biggest regret was kicking me out of the clan, and that he was never going to meet his grandchild. His last act as the head of the clan was to take me back into it. He then asked me to speak to my mother. When I spoke to her, she told me that she regretted not being a better mother; she also admitted that she had left me a bit of land and a trust fund. After that I spent the next two days talking to them about you; until, they died minutes apart from each other. I never tried to find out how much was in the trust fund, nor have I visited my mother's summer home in the last twenty years." When Nodoka finished, her voice was filled with pride as she remembered her parents and sadness as she remembered the day her parents left her.

"So, since you haven't been to the place for so long, we don't have to clean the place do we?" Ranma's foot-in-the-mouth disease questioned

Kasumi so wanted to swat Ranma on the back of the head. Her hands were slowly being raised, and her right eye had a bit of a tick in it. Nodoka saw this and held back a chuckle. She decided not to say anything in order to see where this would lead. Kasumi was in a bit of a dilemma, she wanted to swat Ranma on the back of the head for his remark, but, at the same time, didn't really want to hit him because he received enough of that kind of attention back in Nerima. So coming to a decision about her predicament, she ended up glaring at Ranma, although coming from Kasumi it looked like an almost frown and slightly narrowed eyes, and flicked him on his nose. Ranma was extremely surprised by Kasumi's actions and looked at her only to start cringing due to the look he was receiving. Ranma averted his eyes downward to avoid Kasumi's gaze, but that only caused him to start looking at the tip of his nose because of the slight tingling sensation left by her touch. The sight of her son staring crossed eyed it the tip of his nose was too much for her and caused to start to laugh. It was the first time in nearly a decade and a half that she had actually laughed. It was the first time in that decade and a half that she felt she was even able to laugh; the first time she felt whole, and the first time she felt that she, her son, and her probable daughter-in-law were a family. Distracted by Nodoka's laughter Kasumi looked away from Ranma, who she was still a bit cross with thanks to his insensitive question, to Nodoka. She briefly wondered if the woman had finally lost it, if all the recent events and stress had finally caused Nodoka's mind to break. That was until her head turned to what Nodoka was looking at. Kasumi watched a cross-eyed Ranma twitch his nose in an incredibly cute way, and nearly broke out laughing herself. She managed to hold her laughter in, as she dug through her things, only letting out a small adorable snort, which only served to fuel Nodoka's laughter. When she found what she was looking for, she stopped digging, pulled out a small camera, steadied herself, and took a picture. With her task done, she no longer needed to hold herself back, and collapsed further back into her seat and copied Nodoka's actions. Ranma, finally drawn away from his self inspection, noticed that his two traveling companions were laughing. His face twisted in confusion as he tried to figure out what was wrong with them. That was, at least, until Kasumi lifted up the camera and snapped off another shot. That just caused Ranma to pout. This brought about another flash from Kasumi's camera. Ranma, fed up with the way the other two women were acting, turned to the window, crossed his arms, and started to sulk. After a few more minutes of laughing and giggling, both Nodoka and Kasumi calmed down enough to try to stop Ranma from brooding.

"We're sorry Ranma." Kasumi said with a smile, still trying to hold back a few giggles that had yet to escape.

Ranma looked at her, his eyes narrowed defiantly, arms still crossed, and a frown across his lips.

"Please don't be mad, but you looked so cute and we couldn't help it." Kasumi spoke with the near-infectious smile still plastered on her face.

Kasumi saw Ranma's frown falter and decided to go for broke. Ranma nearly screamed in terror as Ranma saw Kasumi use the one technique that he could never find a counter to, the one that he had always lost to, the dreaded, the should-be-forbidden, the sad puppy-dog eyes. That technique alone, on any other girl, would be able to crumble his resolve, but that look, along with Kasumi's goddess like beauty, caused his resolve to be crushed, then disintegrated, then sealed in a titanium-alloy container and buried hundreds of kilometers under mount Fuji.

"Please don't be mad; I'll make you dinner, and you can have anything you want for desert." Kasumi continued with her cuteness assault on Ranma.

Ranma slumped and dejectedly said, "Fine, but you better make lots of food! And for dessert I want a mountain of ice cream with your cherry on top!" Absently, another part of Ranma's mind wondered why he had asked Kasumi for ice cream. That was until his memories of the end of his last ice cream binge surfaced in his mind. His memories of taking that wonderful cherry into her mouth. (Ranma a girl at the time.) Suckling it. Rolling it on her tongue. Sucking on it, and milking it for every drop of its heavenly juices. Then devouring it, and savoring it like it was a piece of ambrosia from the gods themselves. God, Kasumi's things taste so good if she made it for me it would be so so… At this point that little part of Ranma's mind went blank because it couldn't find a word to Kasumi's cherry.

"Ok!" Kasumi's mouth responded before her brain had a chance to decipher and inform her of Ranma's request. Eventually her mind figured out what Ranma said he wanted, and her internal voice let out a 'O-OO-OH M-MM-MMMY'. After she realized what Ranma had asked, her entire body started to do a reasonable impression of Ranma-chan's fiery red hair.

Nodoka sat there, happily watching the other two interact. That was, at least, until Ranma's bold request. After his request she sat there in open-mouthed shock, but an old sub-routine jump-started her mind again.

'GRANDCHILDREN!'

Nodoka barely resisted the urge to break out her "I'm going to be a grandmother" fans and do her happy dance. Instead she chose to watch Ranma, who was currently inching closer and closer to Kasumi, asking her if she was ok. It was then that Nodoka realized Ranma had simply miss-worded his request. A part of her was disappointed, but the rest of her decided to laugh, which is also what she did on the outside. Ranma sat, confused again, but this time decided to ask what he'd done.

"Errr... mom, what's so funny this time?" Ranma asked with a thoroughly confused look on his face.

After succeeding in controlling her laughter, Nodoka decided to answer her son. "Well, you see Ranma, what you asked of Kasumi was mmmmpppphhhmpph..." Nodoka couldn't quite finish due to the strategic placement of Kasumi's hand which was now covering her mouth. Ranma, meanwhile, became more confused at Kasumi's actions. Ranma's mother, figuring that Kasumi didn't want Ranma to know, shut her mouth and nodded to the young woman. Sighing in relief, Kasumi released Nodoka and sat back down. Somehow knowing that he wouldn't receive any answers from his mother, Ranma decided to voice his question to Kasumi. This only served to embarrass the young woman even more and rekindle Nodoka's mirth. Suffice to say, the rest of the car ride was nearly hellish for Kasumi because Ranma, for some odd or stubborn reason, kept trying to find out what kept causing his mother to break out in fits of laughter. This caused Nodoka to start laughing again, which only refreshed Kasumi's embarrassment.

When they arrived at the house Kasumi refused to leave the car. Much to the amusement of Ranma and Nodoka, Kasumi had duplicated Ranma's earlier pose, and was moping in the car. Now it was Ranma who was pleading with Kasumi.

"I'm sorry." Ranma pleaded, "Please come out of the car. Pleeeeease!" Kasumi just turned away from him.

Nodoka, meanwhile, just stood outside of the car and was highly entertained as she watched the two interact. 'I hope they forget that I was the one who started all of this.'

Ranma, on the other hand, had succeeded in gaining Kasumi's attention again. "I'll be good, so please don't be mad at me." Ranma then proceeded to imitate Kasumi and do his own version of sad puppy dog eyes, but since he was in his guy form at the time, it wasn't as effective so all he ended up doing was look goofy. Kasumi couldn't help smiling as she looked at Ranma. Seeing his little plan succeed, Ranma could help but release a bit of a smirk.

After seeing his smirk, Kasumi rolled her eyes and spoke sarcastically, "Ranma your hopeless!"

"Hey, I have lots of hopes!" said Ranma, feeling insulted, "Like err...umm...like...I hope we don't have to clean the place up!" Oddly, Ranma felt proud of his answer, and stood with his arms crossed, nodding in a sage-like manner.

Kasumi had fought, and valiantly won, against face-faulting at Ranma statement, simply got out of the car, flicked Ranma on the nose, began ignoring him and walked towards Nodoka. Ranma looked at his nose, where Kasumi had flicked him, and then at Kasumi's back as she was walking away from him. He shivered a bit at the coldness suddenly being displayed to him by Kasumi, of all people. He couldn't help but shudder as he asked, "What'd I do?"

Nodoka sensed that the little confrontation was over and, being the loving mother she wanted to become, added one last barb. "Now, if you two are done flirting with each other, I would like to go inside."

The two blushed. Ranma started sputtering, trying to deny that he and Kasumi were flirting. But he failed miserably thanks to the growing blush dancing across his cheeks. Although, more than likely, the main reason that he couldn't deny flirting with Kasumi was because his mind couldn't complete a coherent thought at the moment. Kasumi had frozen in mid step, her mouth was agape, her eyes were as big as Ranma's ego, and the rest of her face was covered in a heavy blush.

For a brief moment Nodoka wondered if Kasumi would fall over and stay in the same pose, if she were to go over and give her a gentle nudge. She waited a few more moments, and only Nodoka would know whether she was waiting for one of them to answer, or she just wanted to embarrass them for a bit longer.

"And to answer your question Ranma, we don't need to clean the place up because my brother and sister stay here from time to time and keep the place clean. Oh, and please don't forget to bring in the backpacks when you come inside." With that said, Ranma's mother entered their new home, leaving a still stammering Ranma and frozen Kasumi outside.

There wasn't anything special about the front of the house, though the house itself looked fairly modern. A stone wall, about a meter and a half tall, surrounded the property. A doorway, built into the wall to allow entry into the estate, was about a meter wide and could be sealed with its corresponding metal gate. A stone pathway leading to the entrance of the house could be seen through the open doorway. The entrance to the house was blocked by an off-white wooden door, and on either side of the door was a sliding glass window. Another window had been placed above the doorway, and stretched the entire length of both the doorway and the windows to either side. In front of the smaller windows there were many different colored rose bushes planted. The main pathway seemed to have spawned two dirt paths, running perpendicular to the stone pathway and parallel to the rose bushes, toward the back of the house. All in all, it was a simple and comfortable looking house.

By the time Nodoka had entered the house, Ranma and Kasumi had recovered somewhat, though they still had healthy blushes caressing their cheeks. Having done as his mother asked, Ranma had gathered his and Kasumi's backpacks and followed Kasumi into the house. When they entered the house they found themselves in a small living room. To the right was a fire place, ahead of them was a set of stairs running parallel to the door, and a hallway could be seen on the far left corner of the room. Spotting Nodoka as she entered the hallway, Ranma and Kasumi took off their shoes and followed. In the hallway the first door to their left was a restroom, directly across from that door, to their right, was the dining room, in front of them was a larger living room. The living room was connected to the kitchen, which also connected to the dining room.

"Alright, let me start dinner, and you two go get settled in one of the bedrooms up stairs. One of the room should be mine, so pick one of the other five rooms." Nodoka nodded to herself and walked towards the kitchen.

Both Ranma and Kasumi were a bit confused. They thought that Nodoka had not come to this place in twenty years, but it looked like she knew exactly where everything was in the kitchen, and already had a room in their new home. Ranma, never one to be able to hold his tongue, asked the question that was on both of their minds, "Uhh... mom? If you haven't been here in so long, why do you know where everything is in the kitchen? And why do you already have your own room?"

Nodoka didn't even pause in preparing dinner as she began to answer, "That would be your uncle's fault. He remodeled the house about three years ago. He told me that, since the house was to be mine, he'd had one of the bedrooms rebuilt just for me. And the kitchen was designed to look exactly like the one at..." Nodoka briefly paused to reconsider her wording, "Genma's home."

When Ranma heard the name of the man who had fathered him, he automatically moved to comfort his mother. To his surprise, other then a slight wavering of the happiness in his mother's eyes, his mother remained unruffled and cheerful. Nodoka saw her son moving to comfort her and smiled at him, which stopped him from moving. "Please go pick a room and get settled. I'll call you down for dinner as soon as it's ready."

Ranma nodded to his mother. He unconsciously grasped Kasumi's hand and dragged her up the stairs.

The second floor of the house was one long hallway, with three rooms on either side of it, and a furo at the end of the hall. The first door to the right had a name plate on it, with little deformed chibi kendo girls surrounding the name, which read: "Doka-chan's Room".

"Uh... I think that's mom's room." Ranma responded to the overly cute name plate.

"I think you're right." Kasumi said as she moved to the room farthest down the hall on the right side of the hall. "Is it alright if I take this room, Ranma?"

"Sure, if you want." Ranma spoke as he was moving to claim the room between his mother and his love interest.

When Ranma entered the room, he looked around in slight awe. There was a bed to the side, on the other side of the bed was a computer, and in the wall across from the computer was a closet. The room wasn't anything special, but it was more then Ranma ever had in his entire chaotic life. Ranma unpacked his backpack and tried to decorate his room, but found he just didn't have enough stuff. When he stepped back to examine the room, it seemed less plain and more like it was truly his room. He decided to leave it for now and check on his housemates. As soon as he opened the door, he felt someone rapping on his forehead.

"Gah!" was Ranma's response along with a blush.

Kasumi snapped out of the slight daze at the sound of Ranma's voice, and promptly blushed as she realized what she had done. "Sorry!" she quickly apologized.

"I-It's alright Kasumi..." Ranma said a bit flustered, "So, uh, what can I do for you?"

After calming down a bit, she answered, "I was hoping you were done so we could go help yo- I mean uh.. mother with dinner."

"Sure." with that, the two headed down stairs to the kitchen.

As it turned out, their help was not really needed as Nodoka was nearly finished. So the two merely set the table and watched Nodoka as she worked. Soon enough dinner was being enjoyed by the three of them. The three spoke of little inane things, along with the two women admonishing, and trying to correct, Ranma's eating habits. Oh, and, in case any of you were wondering, Ranma didn't get his ice cream. When dinner ended Ranma asked for the other two to wait.

"Well... Uh... I was hoping that we could do something together later..." Ranma hesitantly asked.

"Like what Ranma?" Kasumi questioned.

"I was thinking, you know, that we could like... have a uh.. like, sleepover kind of thing." without waiting for an answer, Ranma then began to give his reasons, "Because I don't know very much about you two. I mean, I know some stuff... like, Kasumi cleans really good, and is nice. Then mom uh..." Ranma paused and looked at Kasumi with his face reddening, "wants-lots-of-grandchildren, and wears lots of kimonos... But... I kind of want to learn more. Also, if we do become a family, I think we should know more about each other..."

Kasumi sat motionless, still stuck on the implications of Ranma's words. Nodoka, on the other hand, thought that it was a marvelous idea and had moved off into one of the other rooms, busily rummaging for things that could be used for their little slumber party. When she returned, she dumped a pile of pillows and two sleeping bags at the feet of the still motionless Kasumi. Ranma noticed that one of the sleeping bags was larger then the other, but didn't think anything of it.

"Let me go grab some blankets from my room since there are only two sleeping bags."

Ranma was about to leave when his mother spoke, "Oh no, you don't need to. I got the large bag for the two of you. I figure that you two could work on giving me some grandchildren later."

'Oh My!' was the only thought going through the minds of the two youths. Well... there were some mental images, but it would be quite inappropriate to describe them.

"MOOOOOOOOM!" Ranma and Kasumi screamed simultaneously.

"What?" Nodoka said, sounding like there was absolutely nothing wrong with her suggestion.

"How could you suggest that!" Kasumi started to rant.

"We can't have children yet..." Ranma picked up.

"...We're too young!" Kasumi ended the thought.

"You're the adult here..." Ranma started a new sentence.

"...aren't you supposed to..." Kasumi said, understanding where Ranma was going.

"...be the one telling..." Ranma spoke, glad Kasumi was backing him.

"...Telling us not to..." Kasumi kept going, happy that she and Ranma were thinking the same thoughts.

"...Rush things?" Ranma finished.

"It is obvious to me that you two care for each other, and the sooner you two start, the better chance I have of spoiling more grandchildren." Nodoka replied, a bit disoriented from moving her head from side to side while listing to her son and most likely future-daughter-in-law's rant.

"Mom, I've already told you that I lo-care..." Ranma glanced over at Kasumi at his near slip-up, but couldn't really tell if she reacted, mainly because they were both still crimson, "for her. For the first time in my entire life I have a chance to be part of something special. I want to take my time and work toward something that only seems possible in fairytales, and make it become real."

Kasumi entire being was radiating joy. For the first time since her mother's death she felt not like a servant or slave, but a woman. For the first time she could remember a man saw her, not as a cook, housekeeper, or the perfect wife, but as a possible soul mate and/or lover. Kasumi stood up, and with slow, deliberate steps, she walked over to Ranma and enveloped him in a soulful embrace. When Ranma had held Kasumi in his arms the past, all their problems, and the future all faded away leaving only the two of them. Kasumi put her mouth as close to Ranma's ear as she could and whispered, "Thank you."

Kasumi rested her head on Ranma's shoulder and molded herself to him. For a moment, or maybe an eternity, the two relish in the shared warmth that was produced when they embraced each other. This further reinforced the idea that what they shared could truly become special.

Their moment was broken when Nodoka could no longer hold herself back, and let out a snuffle. The young couple, realizing they weren't alone, quickly separated with their eyes set to the floor, their faces set aflame yet again. Nodoka took this moment to regain her composure again, and released a dramatically long, over-drawn-out sigh.

"Oh, alright, but I'm keeping the big bag out here. At the rate you two are going, you'll most likely need it." Nodoka dramatically stated. She then walked to the doorway, reached behind the wall, and pulled out a third sleeping bag.

After seeing his mother grab the bag so quickly, Ranma to groaned and said, "Why do I get the feeling Kasumi and I are being manipulated towards your grand scheme of getting grandchildren."

"I know nothing of this great conspiracy you speak of, son." Nodoka said in an exaggeratedly innocent voice. When Ranma looked over at his mother, she had a big doe-eyed expression plastered on her face. Ranma also could have sworn that he saw a golden halo hovering above his mother's head, along with a set of pearl white wings growing out of her back. Ranma now knew for certain that he had been tricked, but for some odd reason he wouldn't have it any other way.

Kasumi had, long ago, figured that Nodoka was up to something and easily found she didn't mind. She also found that she felt, as Ranma did, that she wouldn't have it any other way. She just sat there quietly and watched mother and son interact, hoping she wouldn't become the target of Nodoka's sense of humor.

In a matter of minutes everything had settled down and the three started to talk about their past experiences and feelings. Of course, there were things that each person was not yet ready to share, but that still left many, many things that were spoken about. The three of them talked and listened to each other's stories long into the night, only stopping when exhaustion overtook them.

Nodoka looked at Ranma and Kasumi as she adjusted their sleeping bags. They looked so peaceful. Nodoka kissed each of them on the forehead and bid them a silent good night. After getting into her own sleeping bag, she considered her son and daughter. Yes, she now thought of Kasumi as her own daughter, even if Kasumi decided not to marry Ranma for some reason, she would still consider Kasumi her daughter. As Nodoka fell asleep she vowed to herself that she would do anything and everything in her power to protect her family.

Nodoka's Dream-

Nodoka was sitting on a park bench as she watched her two grandchildren play. Both children were about four or five years old. The young boy had chestnut-brown hair and light blue eyes. He was wearing an outfit which was an exact match to his father's, a red Chinese shirt, black kung-fu pants and black kung-fu slippers. The young girl had black hair and misty blue-gray eyes. She was wearing a Mandarin Blouse with an Embroidered Phoenix on it and Fang Yin Satin Pants. The two of them were on the swing set, competing to see who could swing the highest. Then, suddenly, Nodoka was blinded by a flash of light.

BOOM!-

"GRANDMA!" the two young children screamed.

Nodoka shook the spots from her vision and looked on in horror at the scene in front of her.

'NO...'

There was a man chasing after her two grandchildren; while at the same time, they were running towards her.

'NO...'

The man was wearing a white gi on his overweight body, a bandana over his bald head and a pair of glasses over his beady eyes.

'NO...'

The man was...

'NO...'

The man was...

'NO...'

...her husband Genma.

'NO!'

"MOVE WOMAN!" Genma spoke in a thunderous voice.

"NO! I WILL NOT!" retorted Nodoka, emphatically.

"THOSE TWO WILL BECOME WHAT THAT WEAK SON OF YOURS FAILED TO BE! THEY WILL BECOME THE PERFECT MARTIAL ARTISTS!" Genma bellowed.

"Run! Please, go to your parents!" Nodoka whispered to the two children behind her.

"But..." the young boy tried to interrupt.

"Please! Your parents and I would be very sad if something were to happen to you two." Nodoka looked at the two children with pleading eyes.

The two young children looked ready to defy her, but relented due to the look they were receiving. But, finally, the children nodded. They took hold of each other's hands and started to run.

Nodoka unsheathed her katana and turned to regard Genma.

"HA HAHAHAHAHAHA!" came the maniacal laughter of Genma, "SO THE WEAK PIECE OF TRASH THINKS SHE CAN STOP ME!"

Nodoka just narrowed her eyes and shifted into a defensive stance.

"YOU COULDN'T STOP ME BEFORE..." Genma took a step with each word he spoke, "YOU DID NOTHING TO STOP ME FROM TORTURING YOUR SON, SO WHY SHOULD IT BE ANY DIFFERENT WITH THOSE TWO!"

By then, Genma had reached Nodoka, and he looked at her with contempt, then back-handed her in the face. The blow was strong enough to loosen a couple of her teeth and knock her back about two meters. Nodoka got to her feet as quickly as she could, but still wobbled from the blow.

"I-I'LL PROTECT MY FAMILY!" blood flew from her mouth as Nodoka screamed at him.

"YOU ARE STUPID, WEAK, AND USELESS. YOU HAD NEVER PROTECTED YOUR SON, SO WHY DO YOU THINK YOU CAN YOU START NOW!" Genma sneered at the woman while taking another step toward his wife with each word.

Nodoka now was faltering and retreating with each step the man took.

"DID YOU KNOW THAT THE SON YOU LOVE SO MUCH SPENT MONTHS CALLING OUT FOR YOU, CRYING FOR YOU, BEGGING FOR YOU TO COME HELP HIM AND YET YOU DID NOTHING! YOUR SON KNOWS NOTHING MORE THEN BITTERNESS AND HATE. THE SON YOU LOVE SO MUCH... HATES YOU!" Genma spat out.

Nodoka reeled at Genma's words and nearly stumbled. Self-pity and doubt overwhelmed her as she stood there, unable to refute Genma's words.

"I am here now."

"I will never leave you."

"I love you."

"No matter what, I will always be your son."

Ranma's voice echoed through her mind as she remembered the words he'd said to comfort her.

"Ranma and I will always be with you, and love you...mother."

Kasumi's voice echoed alongside Ranma's, as both voices sought to comfort and give strength to Nodoka.

"HAHAHAHAHA!" Genma cackled again, "OH, SO THE LITTLE WHORE STILL HAS A BIT OF SPRIT LEFT IN HER!"

Nodoka rose back up to her full height and took an offensive stance with her sword.

"WASTE LIKE YOU DOESN'T DESERVE TO LIVE!" roared Genma as he reared his arm back, ready to cave in Nodoka's skull.

As Genma's arm came forward, there was no sound or epic struggle. Instead, there was a simple flick of Nodoka's wrist, and then it was over.

THUMP-

That was the only sound that was heard. That was the sound of Genma's headless body crashing to the ground. Nodoka looked at Genma's head as it rolled to a stop at her feet and made one last declaration before following her two grandchildren.

"I WILL do anything and everything to protect my family!"

Author's Notes: I blame DelShalDar for the scene with Ranma's mind and the cherry. He wanted to know what was going through Ranma's mind, and you read what I think was going through his mind. (smiley face (stupid formatting they took away my smiley face.))

Reviewers Responses:

Chapter one may seem to have been rushed, but I kind of was going a spur of the moment type thing with the consequences of that decision to be dealt with later, but I guess I failed to achieve that.

I'm very happy that a lot of people liked it. I hope I could update sooner. I wish I had more time to write, but I don't, so I write when I can.

Nonengel: I made Nodoka emotionally unstable, so she had an emotional breakdown instead of trying to lop of Genma's head.

Imortis: I'll deal with each member of the cast eventually.

Ayanami Rei II: Yes, I believe that you right about my take on Akane, but I kind of wanted to come up with something a bit better then the 'I blame Kuno and the hentai squad' or the 'Akane has rage disorder' or the 'Akane has given into rage because of her mother's death' angles. So I gave up for the moment and will come back to it later when I figure something out.

SSJ Guyver: I admit that I started reading Ranma fanfiction before I watched the entire anime or read all of the manga, so my views of Nodoka were altered by fanfiction most likely the stuff written by DanI Yanega. On a side note, I was hoping you update 'Ranma : Demonic Lifestyle' because there are not many pairings that follow my pin name. I'm writing one, but this story has priority at the moment.

Migele: I would put it up at CoRK but it seems that the site hasn't been updated in a while.

ET3 James Axelrad: Thank you, and keep reading to find the answers to your questions.

I would like to thank everyone and anyone who read and/or reviewed my story. Anyways, as always, you can leave a review or e-mail me a comment at:

tsunami(underscore)saotome(at)yahoo(dot)com

Oh and flames will be tossed into Akane's cooking. Then when they're alive be force fed her cooking to die a slow, painful death.


	4. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I don't own Ranma 1/2 and am doing this for the fun of it.

Oh and flames will be tossed into Akane's cooking. Then when they're alive, they will be force fed her cooking to die a slow, painful death.

Author's Notes: Sorry it took so long to get this chapter out, but I had some problem. I know that I will get the next chapter out sooner.

Only You...

By TsunamiSaotome

"Ranma! Ranma! Please wake up! Ranma!" Kasumi whispered, "Ranma! This is improper! Please wake up! Ranma!"

Kasumi had been trying to wake Ranma for the previous few minutes. She would have spoken louder, but she didn't want to wake the third occupant of the room. It wasn't that she feared anger resulting from an early wake up call. No, Kasumi was trying to save herself and Ranma from the embarrassing remarks of one, Nodoka Inoue. The morning had started out normally enough; with Kasumi, forgetting what had happened the day before, getting up to start her normal routine. She was expecting to get out of bed and use the furo, but since this was no longer Kasumi's bedroom, things didn't turn out as planned. She woke up okay, but being groggy from having been up so late the night before, she didn't really notice that her legs hadn't gone over the edge of a bed before reaching the floor. When she stood up and took a step, her feet got tangled in her sleeping bag and she started to fall, which startled her to full wakefulness in an instant. She closed her eyes and raised her hands in front of her to try and absorb the expected impact.

Kasumi had successfully broken her fall, the martial arts training of her youth not completely forgotten, and took a moment to calm herself. 'That didn't hurt as much as I though it would.' was the eldest Tendo's first thought. She closed her eyes in an effort to rid herself of the adrenaline that flooded her body. Her eyes remained closed while she tried to calm herself, even as the adrenaline rush flooding her body urged her to move. Kasumi was about to lift herself up, and nearly started to panic as something grabbed her. Upon opening her eyes, she found herself centimeters from Ranma's face. 'Oh My!' was her overriding thought as she stared at Ranma's slumbering features.

Ranma lay dreaming. One might believe because of Ranma's martial arts training, Ranma knew Kasumi was up, but since Kasumi was categorized as both a non-combatant and a non-threat, Ranma continued blissfully sleeping. When Kasumi had started to fall, Ranma's subconscious recognized that said non-threat might be hurt and immediately took action to prevent damage, with the final result being Ranma turning onto his back and using his body to cushion Kasumi's fall, all without disturbing his slumber. When Kasumi was no longer in danger, Ranma's mind relaxed and his natural instincts took over. Ranma wrapped his arms around his long-lost teddy, rolled to his side, while sliding her a bit lower and resting his chin on top of her head.

Thus, Kasumi found herself in a bit of a predicament. Not only was she still recovering from the remains of her adrenalin rush, Kasumi also found herself...Kasumi found herself flushed and excited from being held so intimately by Ranma, and she was still feeling the heat from when Ranma inadvertently ground their bodies together during the process of shifting her into "teddy-bear" position. Kasumi was partially worried about Nodoka's reaction, as she didn't want to give Ranma's mother any more material to torment herself and Ranma with. The rest of her was happy, content, and almost ready to ignore the rest of the world; to fall asleep in Ranma's arms. After a brief internal battle, Kasumi's worries, with the aid of that little nagging voice saying "this is improper", finally won out. She started whispering to Ranma as loud as she dared, still not wanting to risk waking Nodoka.

Ranma, being the heavy sleeper he was, remained oblivious as she tried to struggle and whisper to him. He merely continued to hold her, and slept on.

Kasumi, on the other hand, nearly let out a moan, her body betraying her thanks to all of the sensations generated by the level of physical contact. She stopped moving because it was becoming more and more difficult to think straight and remember why she wanted to get out of Ranma's embrace. But remember she did, and for a few more minutes Kasumi continued urgently whispering to Ranma, while at the same time trying not to become more aroused.

"-Gasp- I knew you two would need the bigger sleeping bag!" came an excited but quiet voice.

Kasumi wanted to cry, or at least whimper. This is exactly what she wanted to avoid. She was afraid to look up, knowing, almost fearing, what she'd find, the suffering both she and Ranma were guaranteed to endure. Gathering her courage, she tilted her head up, finding the very thing that she knew would be there. There Nodoka stood, towering over herself and Ranma, a slightly glazed look in her eyes and a wide smile that seemed to fill her face. Kasumi was becoming irritated, not only had her body betrayed her and become aroused, but her mind had become a jumbled mess of conflicting emotions. She decided, then and there, to vent her frustration on the target of her greatest frustration: her maybe future mother-in-law. The only problem was, since she was currently confined by Ranma's hold, all she could do was tilt her head towards Nodoka and glare.

Nodoka, noticing she was being glared at, came to the conclusion that Kasumi was telling her to leave and let them sleep in together. Nodoka nodded to Kasumi's unspoken, and grossly misinterpreted, request.

Kasumi watched as Nodoka's smile grew a bit wider as she nodded her assent, and left. As soon as Nodoka left, Kasumi was absolutely confused by Nodoka's actions. That little bit of confusion almost caused Kasumi to forget she was practically molded to Ranma's body. Kasumi mentally groaned/moaned.

'To heck with it! Nodoka saw us, I might as well enjoy it as much as I can.' was Kasumi's last thought as she made herself comfortable in Ranma's arms. Now feeling only reassurance and safety, Kasumi quickly fell back to sleep.

* * *

"AHHHHH! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" 

That was the first thing Kasumi heard upon waking, but not the first thing she felt. An instant before Ranma's incoherent shout and string of apologies, Kasumi's head had hit the floor when her nice, firm, pillow decided to teleport to the other side of the room. Kasumi sat up and blinked a couple of times, looked at Ranma then blinked some more. When she realized Ranma was bracing himself to be hit, she frowned. 'What did Ranma do to get hit so many times that this has become an automatic response,' Wondered Kasumi as she stood up and made her way over to Ranma. As she moved closer to Ranma and watched him cringe with each step she took, Kasumi was finding it more and more difficult to not badmouth the people in Nerima that conditioned Ranma to be like this. When she reached him she took both of his hands in hers.

"I'm not going to hit you, Ranma. Calm down. I won't hit you." Kasumi said to Ranma in the softest and most calming voice she could.

Ranma heard Kasumi and stopped apologizing, but still had his arms in front of his face. From behind his arms he opened his eyes.

"Huh? Why not? It was my fault." Ranma said with almost enough conviction to convince Kasumi.

"What?" Kasumi spoke in her gentle but now confused voice.

"Waking up with you in my arms...I'm sorry for taking advantage of you!" Ranma's voice was now a bit muffled because he was on his knees bowing to Kasumi.

"It was not your fault." Kasumi continued in her gentle voice, "It was my fault."

"Huh!"

"I woke up to do some chores for the morning, but I got my feet tangled in my sleeping bag and fell... umm... on you." A blush slowly grew on her face as she recalled her little adventure earlier this morning, "If you hadn't caught me this morning I might have been hurt."

"Oh good!" Ranma sighed in relief "Umm... I have a question though."

"What?" Kasumi asked. She smiled a bit at seeing Ranma dropped his guard.

"When you fell on me why didn't you just get off?"

Kasumi shivered at the memory of Ranma's arms around her. "You wrapped your arms around me, so I was... stuck." Kasumi paused then continued, anticipating Ranma's next question, "I tried to wake you, but I couldn't, and it was... well...really comfortable, so I kind of fell back to sleep."

Ranma smiled and responded before he realized what was being said, "It felt really good holding you."

As soon as both of them realized what was just said, both of their eyes' widened and they both turned to study their feet. Having nothing to say, both settled into an uncomfortable silence. Idly, Kasumi pondered why it was that she had been embarrassed and blushed more in a few days than she had in her entire life prior to leaving with Ranma. Was it that some goddess had decided that she spent too much time serving her family and had not been through enough of the trials and situations a normal girl would? She paused at that thought, she had never been a normal girl; she never could be, that chance was given up when she had to take over the mother role in the Tendo household after her mother's death. Kasumi could not say that she hated it; in fact, she loved it, but in the past two days she had acted closer to her age then she had in the ten years previous. Kasumi's little introspective was disturbed when Nodoka made her presence known.

"Kasumi, why did you wake up so early this morning to do chores, when this is not even your home? Do you think that I'm such a poor hostess that I couldn't take care of my own home?" Nodoka asked in a harsh tone. She had apparently overheard their entire conversation from the kitchen.

"No, no...I... I was..." Kasumi was stumbling over her words as a bit of shame wash over her as she took in Nodoka's words.

Ranma was about to come to Kasumi's defense, but Nodoka shot him a glare that stopped any outward protest that he had.

"I...I thought that I was still back at the dojo, and I was only getting up to do chores, like I have been for the last ten years. I just forgot that I was... wasn't there anymore." Kasumi finished with her head down in defeat.

Nodoka walked around the kitchen counter and into the living room, where Kasumi stood, looking meek, and enveloped the younger girl in a hug. "Kasumi, I know what you had to do for the last ten years. I also know that in those ten years you have never had a chance to just be a girl. I can take care of the house; all I want is for you and Ranma to be like carefree teenagers, and enjoy your newfound relationship. Okay?"

"Okay." Kasumi's reply was muffled as she embraced Nodoka a bit harder, relishing in the feeling she thought she would never feel again, and had nearly forgotten, a mother's love for her daughter.

At first, Ranma didn't understand what his mother was trying to do, but after he heard to his mother's words, he understood. He figured that his mother was trying to get Kasumi to stop being a substitute mother and be more of a girl. He decided to give them a bit of privacy, and went into the kitchen to watch over breakfast, giving his mother and Kasumi the opportunity to bond.

"Now I know that there isn't much for a young couple to do out here, but there are a few things, and when you finish with those we'll find something else. For today, I made a picnic basket for the two of you. I'll give you directions to an open field and you and Ranma can go on a picnic." Nodoka said after releasing Kasumi from their hug.

"Is this a plan to let me be alone with him so I could seduce him and have my way with him for hours and hours?" Kasumi asked, almost in a monotone, rolling her eyes, she figured she knew what Nodoka had planned.

"Oh My... What a wonderful idea!" Nodoka gushed, "Oh, I think there are some energy drinks in the refrigerator. I know you two will need them."

Kasumi just stood there frozen as she thought 'That look on Nodoka's face was too real. I don't think she thought of that. Why do I have the feeling I just dug my own grave?' She groaned and covered her face with her hands.

Ranma came over and asked, "What did you do to mom? She seems really happy."

Kasumi decided to peek through her fingers and saw Nodoka practically skipping all over the kitchen. "I was only being sarcastic!"

Nodoka stopped in mid skip and looked over at Kasumi, "That was cruel; you shouldn't mess with this young woman's heart like that!"

Kasumi's mouth decided to give evidence that Ranma's foot-in-the-mouth disease may very well be contagious, "You seem like you're senile and old to me."

Ranma's own disease not wanting to be out done added, "You're not as old as the old ghoul, but you have to be at least 40, or something. That's still really old!"

Nodoka pressed her back to one of the taller cabinets and dramatically crossed her hands over her heart. "Oh the cruelty, how can my children be so heartless!" Nodoka then turned her head so it looked like she was trying to turn it away from Ranma and Kasumi, but left enough of her face visible to allow the other two to see a lone crocodile tear roll down her cheek.

Kasumi, who had lowered her head once again, was about to apologize for her comment, looked up at Nodoka and rolled her eyes again. She then looked at Ranma, only to see that her naive and innocent Ranma had fallen for his mother's little performance, and was about to move over to comfort his mother. Kasumi shook her head and grabbed Ranma's arm, dragging him up the stairs to get ready for the day.

When the two came back Nodoka, no longer feeling melodramatic, had breakfast set out and ready to eat. Breakfast passed uneventfully with little more than idle chatter being exchanged. When they finished, Nodoka got up and handed the basket to Kasumi.

"Mom?" Ranma asked, getting Nodoka's attention.

"Yes, Ranma." Nodoka said as she turned to regard her son.

"You could come with us." Ranma asked.

"Not today Ranma, I'm going to check around the house today and see if there's anything that still needs to be done."

"We could help. I've been taking care of a home for so long that it's going to be hard for me to stop." Kasumi spoke. She didn't want Nodoka doing this all by herself.

"Hmm...if you really want to stop that habit, you could go with your earlier suggestion to me. I know that my son would be more than willing to help you." Nodoka beamed back with a look in her eyes that could only mean she was thinking about grandchildren.

In response, Kasumi only slightly blushed, a sign that she might have been getting used to Nodoka's twisted sense of humor.

Ranma chose that moment to interrupt their conversation, "Sure, I'll help her. I'll help all day if she wants."

'All day...' When Kasumi heard that her head filled with images that should only have been in doujinshi. She silently cursed her suppressed sex drive, and tried to guess what would happen if Ranma was to really try to bed her. This brought up many images most people would have thought impossible to find going through the mind of sweet and innocent Kasumi.

"Kasumi?" Ranma's voice woke her from her fantasy.

"Huh?" was Kasumi's awe-inspiring reply.

"Uhh...what are you doing?" Ranma asked while glancing at Kasumi's body and coloring.

A bit confused at Ranma's reaction, Kasumi glanced down to see her hand just barely hovering over her skin. Her left hand was over her left breast, and the right was nearly on her panties. Ripping her hands to her side, she tried to come up with an answer. "I was err...umm...scratching." she finished lamely.

"It looked like you were about to..." began Nodoka's ever-so-helpful voice. The only problem was, she was never given the chance to finish, because Kasumi took that moment to grab the picnic basket, grab Ranma, and take off at a speed that impressed Ranma. Ranma would have commented, but he was to busy acting like a silk cloth as he was being dragged through the wind. When Kasumi was out of hearing range of the house, she stopped to catch her breath and looked back. There was Nodoka, waving good-bye to them and wearing the same insufferable smirk that Ranma usually wore during a fight.

"Kasumi, maybe we should go back? I mean, mom might have had something important to say, and we didn't get the directions to the clearing she was talking about." Ranma questioned as Kasumi tried to catch her breath.

After a few more moments of heavy breathing, Kasumi finally replied, "I don't think it was that important, because she's waving at us. We don't really need directions... we could just pick a direction and go; eventually, we'll find to a place where we can eat."

"If you say so..." Ranma reluctantly agreed with Kasumi

With that, the two picked a direction, and started walking. No words were exchanged as they walked; no words were needed, being at each others' side was enough. The silence didn't stop the two from looking around and admiring the beautiful forest around them.

Although, Ranma had been sneaking more peeks at Kasumi then at the scenery around them. Every time he looked at her he felt he was dreaming and had to constantly remind himself that this was no dream, and she truly was here with him. He no longer felt the crippling constraints his father forced on to him. Here he was, free, free to make his own future, a future together with Kasumi.

Kasumi, on the other hand, was amazed at the natural beauty surrounding her. She had seen pictures of mesmerizing forests and other landscapes, but to be in the middle of one was infinitely better. She had been to other forests and even a tropical island, but all of those times she was still bound by the responsibility of taking care of her family. Here, those shackles were ripped away. Here, she could just enjoy herself, with none of the suffocating responsibilities waiting in the background. She was here with Ranma, and that was all that truly mattered in her eyes. After an hour of walking, the two came across a meadow with a small brook flowing into a small pond. The two had come to a stop at the top of a hill overlooking the entire valley. Kasumi stood a few steps in front of Ranma, watching the small breezes as they danced along the tops of the long grass, creating an almost water-like effect, and in the treetops as they rustled the leaves to add yet more movement and sound, as if completing the illusion of Kasumi's fantasy. A fantasy that was now no longer a fantasy. Ranma ignored everything around himself, so focused he was on Kasumi, and the way her hair swayed behind her in the gentle breeze. Her features made known her wonderment as she took in the sight before her; a graceful, yet childlike, smile graced her lips. Ranma could only smile, himself, as Kasumi's entire being seemed aglow with joy.

"Beautiful." was all Kasumi said in a light, feathery voice.

"Yea..." Ranma replied, still mesmerized by Kasumi.

"Thank You, Ranma." Kasumi said, now shifting her gaze to Ranma.

Ranma had just realized she was close enough, and was at an angle which made it easy for her to see him. Ranma had been so enraptured by her beauty that he hadn't actually cared what she was doing, and didn't notice her sneaking little peeks at him the entire time... until she had thanked him, that is. "GAAKK!"

Ranma instinctively cringed waiting to be crushed by a huge mallet. He quickly realized that Akane was not there, and Kasumi had told him earlier that she wouldn't hit him. "You really are very beautiful." Ranma said in a stronger voice, to reaffirm that he wouldn't be punished, and to tell Kasumi how he felt.

"Like I said, thank you. Now come on." Not giving Ranma a chance to reply, she took his hand started to walk down the hill, towards a lone tree in the middle of the meadow, near the pond. When they reached the tree, Ranma proceeded to lay out the picnic blanket, while Kasumi decided to explore the area. Ranma had just finished putting out the blanket when he heard a giggle from Kasumi. Getting a bewildered look on his face, he looked at Kasumi, who was looking towards him.

"Ranma come here!" Kasumi yelled. She had an infectious grin and looked like she was trying to hold back laughter.

"What?" Ranma asked while smiling. Although, he didn't know why Kasumi was smiling, all he knew was that it made him feel warm inside.

"Look." Kasumi said pointing to the tree.

Nodoka's son looked at the tree, and the message inscribed in the trunk. "This place belongs to Nodoka Inoue and to all trespassers you will die a slow and very painful death by Q-tip! If this is Onii-tama it was Onee-sama's fault. If this is Onee-sama it was Onii-tama's fault." Ranma chuckled.

"You know, somehow, I knew that mom was almost as big of a trouble maker as I was." Ranma laughed after his comment.

Kasumi rolled her eyes and sarcastically asked, "Whatever gave you that idea?"

Ranma went back make sure the picnic blanket was secure while Kasumi continued her exploration of the area. When Ranma finished, he was about to go join Kasumi, but got a better idea and walked to the nearest flower patch. After a few minutes of wandering, Kasumi noticed Ranma sitting in a flower patch. Kasumi blinked a couple of times at Ranma's bizarre behavior and, wondering why Ranma was acting so strange, warily tiptoed up to Ranma.

"Ranma, what are you doing." Kasumi asked cautiously.

"This one is making a crown for my princess." Ranma said. He stood up and turned around holding a coronet made of white wild flowers, with a single blue flower on the front. He placed the crown atop Kasumi's head and deeply bowed. "I hope it is to your liking."

"Thank you, my young knight. It is a wonderful gift." Kasumi giggled. "You shame me. This is such a wonderful gift that you have given me, and yet you've given me no chance to give you anything in return."

"My lady the only gift I need from you is your smile; for your smile, no gift on earth or even heaven is an equal." Ranma continued with their little play.

"Thank you Ranma. How did learn how to make these? I know for certain that learning to make a flower circlet was not part of learning martial arts." Kasumi said stopping their role-play.

Ranma had first turned away as if insulted, and then spoke. "Anything Goes Martial Arts Flower Arranging."

Kasumi just gawked.

"...I lied."

Kasumi face faulted.

"I don't think you should do that, it looks like it hurts." Ranma said, looking at Kasumi's face, which was now firmly planted in the ground.

'Oww!' Kasumi thought, 'I should have figured that something was up when he turned away.'

Ranma just laughed at Kasumi, which only caused her to glare at him. He then sat down, cross-legged, so he was near eye-level with Kasumi. "So, want me to teach you?"

Kasumi wanted to say no and glare at him some more, but she realized Ranma was being more open, and showing that he was more than a dumb jock. So, for the moment, she decided to let him get away with the trick he'd pulled on her, for now. She lifted her head and replied, "Sure, but could you at least tell me how you learned?"

"Alright." Ranma paused, as if remembering, "It was a couple of weeks before I went to the all boys school I met Ryoga at. Genma had left me for a couple days, and I was bored. I started to walk in a different direction from the camp to kill time. On one of those random walks I ended up in a valley, much like this one, where I met a ten year old girl. She had seen me and called me over before I could leave and, since training had gotten a bit tedious, I went to talk to the girl. It turned out that she often came to the place to play, and couldn't play with any of her friends at the time, so I played with her until she had to go. But before she left, she taught me how to make a flower bracelet. The crown I made you was just a bigger version of the bracelet."

"So what do I do first?" Now that Kasumi's curiosity was satisfied, she wanted to learn how to make a bracelet.

Ranma spent the next twenty minutes explaining, and showing, Kasumi how to make one. Kasumi's first attempt hadn't quite come out as she had intended.

"Wow, this is great. You have to teach me how to make ones like these. I mean I know how to make one in the shape of a circle really well, but I didn't even know that they could be made in a star shape." Ranma paused in admiration of Kasumi's creation, "Kasumi are you okay? You look kind of red... We could go back if you're not feeling well."

Kasumi's only response was to wish she could crawl under a rock and hide.

Over the next hour Kasumi figured out how to make a circular one. Ranma was annoyed though -- Kasumi wouldn't teach him how to make the star shape -- but in Kasumi's defense, you can't teach what you don't know.

When Kasumi finally understood how to make the flower bracelet, she began to make them in all different sizes. At the end of the hour Ranma had six rings, his own crown, three bracelets, two anklets, and a hula-hoop.

"Uhh...don't you think this is enough, Kasumi?" Ranma asked, looking like a wild flower garden.

"Not yet, I have to make some more for the house." said Kasumi, who was busy picking another flower.

"If you make some for the house, it's going to make a big mess when they dry up and crumble, a mess that we'll have to clean up. Uhh... and I don't think that there will be any more flowers around here if you keep going."

"What do you mean? There are still lots of flowers around here." Kasumi looked around herself and noticed that she was now nearly surrounded by a small desert, "Eh he he...umm...I think its time we ate lunch."

"Sure." He stood up and faced Kasumi. What he did next made absolutely no sense to Kasumi. He bowed his head and clapped his hands twice.

"Thank you, Ranma." Kasumi was still confused at Ranma's actions.

"Oh that wasn't for you. That was for all of the poor innocent flowers you killed." Ranma gave her one of his arrogant smirks and started to jog away.

Kasumi flushed and gave chase. Right when she was about to catch him he leaped away. "Hey! That's not fair!"

Ranma's retort was to spin around in midair and stick his tongue out.

Kasumi smiled, and shook her head, at Ranma's behavior. Figuring Ranma would not start eating without her, she walked at a leisurely pace to Nodoka's tree. Only ten minutes had passed when she saw Ranma soaring at her in mid leap. She kept walking and as she expected Ranma landed right in front of her. He looked at her in a questioning manner. She just smiled and leaned closer to him, which prompted him to start sweating at the sweet look that he was receiving. Once she was sure that Ranma was only looking at her face, her hand snuck up and flicked him on the nose. Ranma jerked his nose away from Kasumi as she spoke. "You weren't very nice teasing me like that."

Ranma then smirked. "So you don't like me teasing you, huh?"

Kasumi's smile faltered a bit. She didn't like that smirk. It wasn't his normal smirk, it was...more sinister. "Ranma, what are you doooooooooooooiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnngggggg!"

Ranma had scooped Kasumi up with one arm on her back and the other behind her knees, and jumped towards the forest. Kasumi felt the sensations of rising and falling but was too frightened to open her eyes... that, and Ranma's chest was really comfortable. Once they had stopped falling, and stayed still for a few seconds, Kasumi opened her eyes and looked around. What she saw was breathtaking. They were looking down at the valley. The sun was shining down on everything, casting shadows on the valley, and making the water glitter. It was a completely different view from this morning; it made the whole place look more enticing.

"Ranma if you ever do that to me again without warning me, I'll..." Kasumi looked up to find that the sinister smirk was now joined by a sinister gleam in his eyes. 'I don't think that I like that look.' was Kasumi's last thought before she saw Ranma glance down. Going against her better judgment, she looked down... to see that they were standing on a thick branch above a thirty meter cliff. She didn't have a good feeling about this. "Ranma..." and they fell "...aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!" Kasumi instinctively pulled herself closer to Ranma and squeezed her eyes shut. When they stopped, the eldest Tendo daughter cautiously opened one eye, only to see Ranma's insufferable smirk above her. Opening both her eyes and looking around, she saw that Ranma was safely on the ground, she was still in his arms, and not on the ground herself. Glaring at Ranma, whose smirk only got wider; she gave him the first suitable punishment that came to mind. "I will never cook for you ever again."

After hearing that, it was Ranma's turn to have his smile waver, but it quickly returned looking more confident. "Really?"

"Yes!" was the forceful reply from Kasumi.

"Why?" Ranma said with a clueless look.

"Cause you let me fall!" Kasumi looked at him like he grew a second head.

"Do you think I would let you fall?"

The question made Kasumi pause. "Well...no. Not if I could get hurt."

"See? You were safe the entire time." Ranma replied.

"But it was still scary"

"Open your eyes and watch, it's actually really fun! Trust me." Ranma said with a soft and genuine smile.

"...Okay..." Kasumi still had a bit of apprehension in her voice as she spoke.

Kasumi's anxiety quickly left her as she relished the wind in her face, along with the safety and comfort she felt while being cradled in Ranma's arms. Kasumi was very disappointed when they had to stop, but understood why when Ranma's stomach let off a roar, not a growl, but an actual deafening roar. She wasn't sure, but she thought she heard an echo. Much to Ranma's embarrassment, the two decided to stop for lunch. They ate in silence, which was mostly due to Ranma's mouth never being empty for more then a second. When they finished eating, both felt extremely tired and drowsy and started to fall asleep. Ranma, wanting Kasumi to be comfortable, used the flowers he had been wearing to make a pillow for Kasumi. Kasumi was too sleepy to protest, and let herself be pampered by Ranma. Soon enough the two were asleep on the blanket, being warmed by sunlight.

* * *

Nodoka had wanted to go with her son and Kasumi, but, as she had told Kasumi earlier, she was the mistress of the house so she had duties here to attend to. She went through every room and obsessively cleaned everything until the room looked like it had just been built. She had a quick lunch before deciding to take the opportunity for a long soak. After that, she really didn't have anything to do, so she decide to have some tea outside and relax some more. After an hour or so outside, she decided to start dinner and wait for her son and future daughter's return.

* * *

Ranma woke up about an hour after he had fallen asleep. He had been awakened by a rather cool gust of wind, and had also heard sounds of someone moving near him. He sat up and glanced to his right and saw Kasumi had curled herself into a ball to try warding off the cold. Seeing as he wouldn't be able to fall asleep again, he folded his half of the blanket over Kasumi. After watching for Kasumi to stop shivering, he moved away from her and started to do some katas. A little over an hour later, he was so focused on his workout he failed to notice Kasumi was up and watching him, with an enraptured gaze. She watched every movement of Ranma's lithe and powerful form. In Kasumi's eyes, the art was no longer the violent tool that she always witnessed in Nerima. People who used unarmed combat, like Ranma, are the reason why it was called an art. It had nothing to do with his hard, well defined, muscle that rippled deliciously when he moved. Nope, those glistening muscles had nothing to do with it, nothing at all. After another 2 hours of drooling...er...watching him practice, Ranma ended his routine and saw Kasumi was up and watching him. Ranma smiled and stared walking towards her. 

"Did you sleep well?" Ranma kneeled so he could speak to her without having to look down.

"Yeah." Kasumi's couldn't help but let her eyes wander over his body since his sweat-drenched clothes stuck to him like a second skin. Her show was interrupted when Ranma stood up, extending a hand to help her to her feet. Taking his hand she pulled herself up. "Thank you."

"You're welcome. We should be going back; mom will probably have dinner ready soon." Ranma didn't let go of her hand when she tried to pull away. Kasumi cast a quizzical look at Ranma, and though he couldn't meet her eyes, he mumbled, "It feels nice."

Understanding Ranma's unvoiced question, Kasumi tightened her hold on his hand. Together the two cleaned their things up and walked back, hand in hand. When the two reached the Inoue house they saw Nodoka fluttering about the kitchen, already started on dinner. The two offered to help, but were quickly and forcefully asked to go up stairs and get cleaned up. When Ranma and Kasumi had returned from their baths, dinner was ready and set to be served. Dinner was fairly animated as Kasumi told Nodoka about their day and what they did. Of course, she omitted some parts and certain thoughts, but tale was still accurate. After dinner had ended and the three had cleaned up, Ranma walked to the wall surrounding their new home and sat on one of the fallen trees in the yard. It was only a few minutes later when Kasumi and his mother followed him.

"Ranma, do you mind if we join you?" Kasumi held her hands behind her back and wore a delicate smile. After seeing him nod his consent, Kasumi sat to his right and Nodoka sat to his left.

"What are you doing out here?" Nodoka asked, watching her son as he stared at nothing.

"Just came outside so I could think." Ranma said, looking at the darkening sunset.

"If you want, we could leave you alone?" Nodoka asked, but as both women stood up to leave, Ranma's hands darted out and grasped both of them by a wrist.

"Please stay!" Ranma spoke a bit louder than he had intended, but continued anyway, the tone of his voice making him sound weary, "Could you just listen for now?"

"Always." was the strong reply from Kasumi's concerned voice.

Ranma took a calming breath and began express his thoughts, "You know, I've been acting so different these last two days. I mean look what I did. Who would have thought, without any magic, potions or blackmail that I would be flirting and teasing Kasumi like..."

"...a normal boy?" his mother finished for him.

"Well...yeah. I never knew or thought that I could do anything normal." Ranma said, looking depressed.

"Ranma, I'm not the only one with a mask." Ranma looked at Kasumi in confusion. She wouldn't meet his eyes and had her head down.

"Wha?" was the only word that came out of his mouth as he struggled to figure out what she meant.

"A little over a week ago, you said that I hide behind a mask." Kasumi still didn't want to meet Ranma's eyes, especially when he realized what she was talking about.

It was a few moments after she spoke that he figured out what she meant. Once he did, his body stiffened, his face colored and his eyes widened. "Yo...you heard that?" his voiced wavered as he spoke.

"Yes..." Kasumi still had not moved.

"So, I confessed to you without knowing..."

To Kasumi his voice sounded a bit muffled. She was about to reply, but Nodoka started to laugh. Startled, Kasumi turned to see Nodoka wave her hands toward her son. Kasumi stifled a giggle herself as she watched Ranma crawl under a couple of boulders behind them.

"Ranma stop that. Come back here!" Kasumi spun herself around as she got off the log. Taking a couple steps, she managed to grab one of Ranma's ankles and tried to drag him back to where they were sitting. "Come on."

Ranma, seeing that he was no longer moving, looked back and saw Kasumi attached to his foot. For a moment, he entertained the idea of dragging her under the rock with him, but it felt like too much work. Instead, he went limp, content to let Kasumi drag him back. Of course, Kasumi wasn't strong enough to drag him on her own, and gave up after a couple of tugs. Instead, she wrapped her arm around his waist and started pulling. Sighing, he gave up, stood up, and sagged against Kasumi, who pulled him back and sat him down. As she began to sit, she caught Ranma cracking a smile. Once he was settled again, he started to speak.

"If we were back in Nerima, I would never have toyed around with anyone like that." Ranma had a bitter edge to his voice.

"As I was saying, I'm not the only one with a mask. I am very sure that if you had done something like that in Nerima, the results would have been disastrous." Kasumi continued speaking her thoughts from before Ranma had interrupted. "I know that the clueless martial arts jock that was in Nerima was only an act. There were many times I saw proof it was an act, especially in the last few days."

"What if... what you saw these last few days wasn't really me?" A hint of fear now entering his voice. 'Maybe she only likes me the way I've been acting the last two days. What if that's not me? What if I really am that dumb jock? Would she stop caring for me?'

"I wouldn't care. If this is you, or the Ranma I've watched these last couple years is the real you. I don't care. As long as you are you, I'll happily stay by your side."

"I don't care", she says.' Such simple words, but to Ranma it meant so much. 'She isn't demanding that I be anything other than what I am... All she expects is for me to be myself.' To him, it felt like the world had been lifted off his shoulders, he could grow to be himself and it wouldn't disappoint Kasumi. 'And she's the first person who hasn't told me what to be... the first person who doesn't want to change me, or control me... '

Kasumi's smile grew a bit wider, happy that her words had calmed the internal turmoil that Ranma seemed to be going through.

Nodoka was now realizing that her children were very strong emotionally and mentally, but like almost all young couples, still had insecurities that they were afraid to confront. Hopefully she could let them have enough time alone, without the distractions of the past coming back and haunting them, so they could find and overcome those insecurities.

The rest of the night was spent near each other, a newly found peace the three were quickly finding to be addictive.

Author's Notes: My laptop died and I lost everything, and yet I got this chapter written faster then the last, for some reason I find that odd. As always I would like to thank my pre-readers: Drkjester and DelShalDar. Anyways, as always, you can leave a review or e-mail me a comment at:

tsunami(underscore)saotome(at)yahoo(dot)com

Reviewer Responses:

I would like to thank every one else who reviewed and say that I will update as soon as I feel that I have something that is worth people using their time to read.

Wonderbee31: Thank you. I'll deal with everyone eventually. I'm going to try to be a bit different from the norm (don't know if I can though.). So please keep reading and let me know what you think.

Darkepton: Not finishing a story was the main reason that I almost never started or uploaded a story. I don't know what the future holds but I will try to finish every story I put out.

Reaper2040: I'm happy you think that my story is good. The length of my chapters may vary because I usually have to or three events planed that I want to cover in a chapter and I write till I cover them.

a: I have a scene to deal with his name but I have to figure out how it's going to affect the other stuff that I have planned out.

Shinji the good sharer: sweat drops thanks...you know I think reading your stories is staring to corrupt my pure and oh so innocent mind.

Crimson Yrael: I love Ranma/Kasumi match-ups too! I do try and hand each scene with care. I always try to write so that anyone who chooses to read my story can enjoy it.

Oh and flames will be tossed into Akane's cooking. Then when they're alive, they will be force fed her cooking to die a slow, painful death.


	5. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I don't own Ranma 1/2 and am doing this for the fun of it.

Oh and flames will be tossed into Akane's cooking. Then when they're alive, they will be force fed her cooking to die a slow, painful death.

Author's Notes: Did you know that in my outline chapter 3 and 4 were one chapter. I dont know if that's a good thing or bad thing.

* * *

Only You... 

By TsunamiSaotome

* * *

Over the next week, Ranma, Kasumi and Nodoka spent most of the days together. The three went out to many spots in the area that Nodoka had talked about, including meadows and a well hidden lake. When they weren't out, the three helped each other around the house, or the two women watched Ranma practice. Ranma's only surprise was when he had woken a bit earlier then usual one morning and went outside to kill some time, and found his mother practicing her sword forms. Watching her proved that the blade she always carried with her was not just for show, his mother truly knew how to wield her weapon. Her grace and fluid movements made Kuno look like he was a disgrace to the sword. Had anyone else been watching, they would easily see that Ranma inherited the grace and beauty Ranma displayed as he practiced came from Nodoka. Today, however, was going to be a bit different from the previous week because Nodoka had to take care of some personal business in town. That is what led to Ranma standing outside his mother's room talking to her through the door. 

"Mom, are you sure that you have to go?" Ranma was speaking a bit louder then he would normally as there was a door between the two of them.

"Yes, Ranma. I have to. I don't think that I should put this off any longer." Nodoka's voice was muffled.

"Kasumi and I could come with you, so you don't have to go alone." A little concern had crept into Ranma's tone.

"I'll be fine. You two don't need to worry about me, but I am still happy that you are. I'm just going to be gone for the day."

"If your sure...but what if one of Nabiki's people find you?" Ranma asked, finally voicing his true concerns, "You could get hurt if Nabiki tells the others."

"Ranma you've seen me practice, so you know I can defend myself." From the tone of his mother's voice, Ranma knew that she was very confident in herself.

"I know but I just got you back and I don't want to have anything happen you again so soon." The concern in his voice increased with every word. His imagination gave him images of what all his fiancées/rivals could do to his mother if he wasn't there.

"Thank you, Ranma. I was concerned about Nabiki too, so I need to change into something a little different so no one recognizes me." Nodoka then opened the door and stepped out of her room.

Ranma stood there with his mouth hanging open. His mother looked nothing like his mother. She was wearing a pair of tight blue jeans, and a white t-shirt which was short enough to expose her belly button and sported a black and white yin/yang symbol on the front of it. As if the clothes weren't enough, she had let her hair down and it now had flashes of bright red streaking across it.

"Ranma?" Nodoka waved a hand in front of his eyes but still didn't get a reaction. After a few minutes of trying to get his attention, she gave up and dragged Ranma downstairs to the kitchen, where Kasumi was getting breakfast ready.

"Breakfast is almost..." it was then that Kasumi caught sight of Nodoka and her reaction mirrored exactly that of Ranma.

Nodoka, getting annoyed with the responses of her two children, snapped at the two. "I don't look that bad! What is wrong with you two!"

"Umm...Mother, its not that you look bad... You look very good in those clothes. Its just that this is so different, that I...we're shocked to see you like this." Kasumi tried to explain. She was also trying to get rid of some of the envy, and possibly jealousy, she felt from not being able to look as good in clothing like that. The fact that she had never tried anything like that, and therefore wouldn't know if it looked good on her or not, was overlooked at the time.

Nodoka's forceful tone pulled Ranma back to reality. "Kasumi is right, mom. This is really different. I mean, you're dressing like someone Kasumi's age should be dressing like."

"So your saying that you would like to see Kasumi in clothes like this?" Nodoka then leaned on one of the countertops and took on a thoughtful expression.

"I...I don't think that...that clothing like that suits me...very well." Kasumi stuttered a bit as she tried to imagine what she would look like in the clothing Nodoka was wearing.

"Oh My..."

The two women turned to the source and Nodoka broke out in a wide smile. Given Ranma's current state, Nodoka just had to point out the obvious. "I think, Kasumi, that Ranma is sure you would look very good."

Kasumi blushed at Nodoka's comment. She couldn't help but stare at Ranma and think that, given Ranma's current state, she might look okay in those kinds of clothing.

Ranma was, well...out of it. His eyes were glazed and blank; he had a small smile, with a bit of drool falling from the corner of his mouth. There were also a couple drops of blood escaping from his nose, some evidence that not all of his thoughts were innocent.

It was at that point breakfast announced it had been done a few minutes prior. With a short shriek that woke Ranma from his early morning wet dream, Kasumi ran to the over to the now overcooked meal to salvage what she could. Ranma, watching the strangest sight he has ever witnessed in his entire odd and chaos ridden life, saw Kasumi Tendo panicking and scrambling around the kitchen to fix one of her meals that was ruined, not by Akane, but of her own inattentiveness. In the end, breakfast had to be fixed by way of leftovers from the night before.

"It isn't that bad." Nodoka tried to comfort a near-mortified Kasumi.

Kasumi lifted her head off the table and replied, "We had to eat leftovers because I completely ruined the food. It was the first meal I've destroyed in over ten years, and if it's not so bad, why is Ranma acting like that?" She then pointed to the boy.

Nodoka's only response was to look at her son and lamely say, "Umm..."

"Exactly!" Kasumi then fell forward, hitting her head on the table with a soft thump.

Nodoka finally couldn't hold all of it back anymore, and hid a smile behind her hand. She looked at her son and a small giggle got past her hand. Ranma was under the table in a textbook example of the "tuck and cover" technique, in a fetal position with his arms over his head, mumbling to himself.

"The world is going to end! Hell froze over! Don't you get it? Kasumi messed up a meal! That can't happen! We're all going to DIE!" Ranma kept rocking and speaking to himself in a near-hysteric voice.

Nodoka couldn't help it, she had to say something. "Since we are all going to die, could you work on making me some grandchildren?"

After a few silent moments Kasumi slid her head off the table and looked at Ranma, who was pulling on her leg. "What?"

"Since we're all going to die, I want to... I want to enjoy my last few moments alive."

Kasumi picked up her head and glared at Nodoka, who had gotten up and moved away from the table. "I see you two are going to be quite busy in a few moments. I'll head to town a bit early, so you two can be alone."

As Nodoka left the room, and the house, she could hear Kasumi hitting her head on the table. When she reached the car she started to laugh, causing the driver to give her a weird look.

Back in the house, Kasumi stopped banging her head because it had really started to hurt. "Ranma, the world is not going to end." She paused, wincing a bit at the throbbing pain in her forehead. "Ranma..."

Ranma poked his head out from under the table and looked at her. "Really?"

"Yes, now come on out!" Kasumi sighed as she watched Ranma tentatively move a bit further out, and wearily look around. She abruptly stood up, causing Ranma to instinctively duck back under the table. She kneeled down and latched onto one of Ranma's biceps and, with strength she didn't know she had, slowly started to pull Ranma out of his little makeshift safety shelter. "Come on Ranma, it's not that bad. It's only one meal. It's not like I'll turn into Akane."

"Kasumi." Ranma's voice was so serious that Kasumi froze. Ranma directed his eyes so that they bore into Kasumi's own. "Please, never let that happen."

Ranma was so sincere when he spoke that Kasumi was at a loss for words. All Kasumi could do was gaze into Ranma's fear laced eyes. After a few moments Kasumi responded. "Hahahahhahahahaha!" by laughing.

Ranma's eyes widened in horror, 'It...it really was the end of the world. The meal was just the beginning; the beginning of Kasumi losing her mind.' He thought.

Kasumi looked at Ranma's worsening expression and started to clutch her ribs from laughing so hard. Looking at Ranma's face, she could almost hear Ranma's mental scream.

Inside Ranma's head: 'NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!'

"Ranma, I'm sorry. You know that -giggle- was one of the few times I've seen you that afraid. -giggle-" Kasumi had mostly recovered and was trying to relieve Ranma's fear.

"Part of me was really, really afraid." Ranma admitted once he realized Kasumi was okay.

Kasumi was so shocked at Ranma's admission that the humor of a few moments ago seemed to evaporate. Ranma noticed Kasumi's reaction and forced an emotionless smile onto his lips. When he spoke, Kasumi knew this meant something more than just from the sound of Ranma's voice alone.

"I'm sorry... I guess I overreacted. Your cooking has been like a cornerstone to my life. No matter how chaotic my life is, or how frustrating it is, I know that I could come back and, if you cooked, enjoy one of your meals without having to worry about anything. So watching you mess up a meal kind of started to crumble my world. Given how much I rely on your meals, I find that, when I thank you for a meal, I'm not doing enough to show you how much I value them. It's like, a simple thank you sounds hollow, but I don't know what else to do."

Kasumi pulled Ranma close to her and enveloped him in a hug. At first Ranma stiffened, but gradually relaxed and started to return the hug. "Ranma, thank you. What you said was the greatest, and most heartfelt, praise that I have ever received for my cooking." For the next few minutes the two stayed in the hug, content with what they were sharing at the moment. The moment ended when Kasumi stood up, pulling Ranma up with her. Ranma looked at her in a confused manner; he liked where he was and wanted to go back.

"Come on, lets go!" Kasumi dragged Ranma towards the door.

"Go where?" Ranma replied, obediently following her.

"For a walk. Today is such a perfect day, I'm sure that it would be better to spend it outside. Being outside would be better then anything we could do in the house."

"I'd rather spend the day inside, if I could be in your arms." Ranma's mouth worked faster then his mind, yet again. He blushed as he realized he'd said something embarrassing again.

Kasumi blushed, and it deepened as she answered, "We could do that later..."

* * *

Soon, they were outside the house and walking down one of the many paths they hadn't yet explored. Like the many times in the last few days, Ranma and Kasumi walked hand in hand. Ranma was also carrying a large basket of food and they made their way down the unknown path. The scenery around them was the same, though no less amazing and, as the two had quickly discovered, every trail they took lead to something special, like a meadow, lake or river. The two were like treasure hunters and wanted to know what kind of treasure awaited them at the end of this particular path. After an hour of walking the two hadn't passed anything of note other than an old shed. The shed had looked abandoned, so the two had ignored it and continued on. A few minutes later, the skies quickly began to darken. 

"Ranma, I think that we should go back to the house." Kasumi said glancing up at the darkening sky.

Ranma being used to sudden rain storms, answered her, "I don't think we can make it in time. Let's see if we can make it back to that shed."

As the two turned to run back to the shed, Kasumi tripped on an exposed tree root and came crashing down on Ranma.

"Kasumi are you okay?" Ranma asked from underneath Kasumi.

"I...I'm okay." Kasumi started to stand, but as soon as she put some weight on her left ankle, she bit back a scream of pain and began to fall again. Once again, Ranma was there to catch her.

"Hold still, let me check your leg." Ranma carefully sat Kasumi on the ground and examined her leg. "I think you sprained your ankle. Relax and let me carry you to the shed."

"Ranma..." Kasumi began to protest but was cut off by Ranma.

"Kasumi, you're hurt and I don't want you to make it worse so please, for now, let me take care of you. Okay?"

Slowly Kasumi nodded and tried to relax. Ranma retrieved the basket, handed it to her, and picked her up, taking extra caution around her ankle. At first, he tried to reach the shed as quickly as possible, but every time he landed he saw Kasumi wince in pain, so Ranma forced himself to go at a slower pace. Since Ranma had to slow down to ensure Kasumi's transport was a comfortable and relatively painless one, they didn't make it to the shed before the rain started. By the time the shed came into view, the clouds had opened and begun to pour down enormous amounts of water, drenching both Ranma and Kasumi. Ranma hoped the shed didn't have many holes in the roof and would be good enough for the two to take shelter from the storm. When Ranma opened the door to the shed, both she and Kasumi became very surprised. Instead of a run down shed ready to fall apart, they found it to be clean and full of towels, blankets, bathing supplies and a first aid kit. Not wanting to question their luck, Ranma quickly walked in and gently set Kasumi on the floor as she inspected the place a bit more and was surprised to find that it seemed to be bigger then it looked form the outside.

"Ranma?" Kasumi asked as she placed the basket in an out-of-the-way corner.

Ranma looked down at Kasumi.

"Could you hand me a towel? Our clothes are soaked and I don't think it's very healthy to stay in them."

Ranma froze as she contemplated the potential consequences of Kasumi's statement. If they took their clothes off, she and Kasumi would be naked in the same small room, but if Kasumi got sick because she had to stay in her soaked clothing Ranma would hate herself. After a quick search she found some rope in the corner with what looked like some emergency equipment. She then tied the rope to walls opposite each other and hung a few blankets on the rope, making a privacy barrier between herself and Kasumi. After setting up and placing Kasumi on one of the folding chairs she'd found stored against the wall, Ranma quickly went and sat in one of the corners on the opposite side of the makeshift barrier, facing away from Kasumi.

Kasumi was blushing in embarrassment because she was undressing in the same room as Ranma, but knew that if she stayed in her dress any longer she would get sick. She was glad Ranma was a complete gentleman and had set up those sheets so she could have some privacy, and that Ranma was also considerate enough to leave a large towel easily within her reach. As she started to undress she spoke to Ranma.

"You should get out of your wet clothing too."

"But!" Ranma tried to argue, but was cut off by Kasumi.

"Ranma, I don't want you to get sick, so please take off your clothes and let them dry." Kasumi asked in a pleading voice.

Ranma didn't want to go against Kasumi's wishes, so with a defeated sigh she started to peel the clothing off her body.

Kasumi smiled at Ranma's sigh and continued to slide her own clothing off, and it took much longer for her then it did for Ranma, due to her sprained ankle. After she dried her hair, she stood up one leg and tightly wrapped the towel around her body. A few moments later, Ranma heard what sounded like a muffled crash. At the chance that Kasumi might be hurt, she peeked over the sheet barrier to see what was wrong and saw Kasumi leaning against a wall with fallen towels surrounding her.

"Kasumi, what are you doing?" Ranma asked, forgetting their state of undress, Ranma rushed over to help Kasumi. Ranma, of course, having no feminine modesty, only had the towel wrapped around her waist, and Kasumi couldn't help but stare at the way Ranma bounced as she approached, then turned away. If Kasumi had kept looking, she might have noticed Ranma's eyes travel up her long shapely lags and settle on, to Ranma, a very short towel. Ranma shook her head in an effort to stop herself from staring and concentrated on the fact that Kasumi might have been hurt further.

"Kasumi, are you okay?" Ranma rushed over with concern very evident in her voice.

"It hurts a little, but before you come over here could you..." Kasumi's voice lowered to a whisper, and her body was also blushing as red as her face, "umm...cover your breasts?...they're really uhh...distracting."

Ranma's face turned as red as her mane. Quickly fighting away her blush and adjusting her towel, she rushed to help Kasumi. Putting one of Kasumi's arms around her and one of her own behind Kasumi's back, she helped Kasumi back to her chair.

"Now, what were you doing?" Ranma asked in a stern, yet concerned, voice.

Kasumi, feeling like she was being admonished, had her head down, "I was trying to hang my clothes to dry them."

Ranma let out a sigh, then a chuckle, which caused Kasumi to look up at her mirthful smirk, "This place isn't even a house and you still doing chores."

Kasumi looked embarrassingly down at the floor then the two started to laugh.

"Stay right there, and I'll hang everything up." Ranma smiled and thought, 'Maybe I'm not the only one with habits to break.' Ranma then proceeded to gather all of their clothing and quickly wrung the excess water out of it, only pausing slightly at Kasumi's bra and panties, and soon finished hanging all of the clothing on the rope dividing the room to dry.

While Ranma was hanging their clothes, Kasumi was looking around the room and saw what that looked like a handle in the floor close to where the emergency supplies were stored. She wanted to go look at it herself, but her ankle still hurt from the last time she'd tried to do something on her feet. To her mind, Ranma was taking so long to finish and, at one point, Kasumi's curiosity was getting to her so much, she had started to debate the merits of crawling over to see what it was, was a good idea; before Kasumi could make up her mind, Ranma finished, so Kasumi asked her. "Can you see what's under that handle over there?" Kasumi's voice was so anxious; she would have all but danced over to the corner, if it weren't for her injury.

Ranma saw the way Kasumi was acting and decided to take her time. When she was about half way to it, she ducked as a balled up towel sailed past her head. She turned around and saw Kasumi balling another towel, "Oh my...I never expected you to have such an...aggressive personality." Ranma then smiled that frustrating smirk at her.

"Oh you be quiet and hurry up!" Kasumi crossed her arms in front of her and looked somewhat upset with Ranma.

"Okay! Okay!" Ranma quickly made her way to the handle and pulled on it, revealing a hidden panel. She then reached to the next floorboard and pulled it off, leaning it against the wall as well.

"What is it?" Kasumi had stood up and was trying to look over Ranma's shoulder from across the room.

"Looks like a pit for a small fire." Ranma made her way over to Kasumi, "I'm going to move you over here, okay?"

Kasumi nodded and waited for Ranma to pick her up, which she did, very carefully so she would not hurt her ankle any more then it already was. Ranma set her down so she could lean against the wall while she got Kasumi's chair. Kasumi looked at the, now exposed, compartments and saw a small stone fire pit, and in the place of the second panel Ranma had pulled up, she could see a stack of wood and some matches. She looked up above the pit and found her suspicions true. The roof above the pit was slanted in such a way as to allow smoke to escape but rain, or whatever other element, could not get in easily. Ranma had set up the chair near the pit and helped Kasumi onto the chair, then busied herself with starting a fire. Ranma, given all of her experience living in the wilderness, had a good fire blazing in a matter of minutes and was extra careful with the edge of the fire; she didn't want to burn down their current shelter, after all. Once the two were settled and warm next to the fire, Ranma asked a question.

"Kasumi, I ahh...noticed that you've been...very curious lately uhh...I was wondering why?" Ranma hope that this wasn't too personal a question, and that she would not offend Kasumi.

Kasumi took a moment to think of an answer, "I'm sure you know that ever since I was ten, I've had to put everything behind my responsibilities of taking care of my family." She looked to Ranma and saw her nod at the statement, "For the first time in years I no longer have those responsibilities. Everything I see, even if it's something as simple as a tree seems so new and so different without that constant weight on me. When you're there with me, it's like everything I see or do is special."

Everything settled into a comfortable silence. Ranma closed her eyes and concentrated on the warmth that flooded her body from Kasumi's words. Kasumi's heart started to race as she admitted those last few words but watching the heartwarming smile blossom on Ranma's face calmed it. Kasumi felt joy in that a few words from her made Ranma so happy. The room was silent. Only the drops of the heavy rain outside could be heard. The silence that held the small shed was abruptly ended by a loud rumble of hunger.

Ranma blushed then giggled, and soon the giggles turned into full-blown laughter, "I think I'm rubbing off on you." Ranma then started laughing again.

Kasumi sat there, embarrassed and in shock. She was surprised that her own stomach was almost as loud as Ranma's. "Nooooooo! That is a horrible fate!" Kasumi stated in mock horror.

Ranma paused, blinked then paused again, "Hey!" finally realizing that she was being insulted. Kasumi giggled and Ranma grumbled. As Ranma made her way to get the basket of food she had an idea on how to get Kasumi back. She hid an evil smirk as she grabbed the food but, before she turned towards Kasumi, she tried to pretend to be grumpy, and succeeded, before walking back to Kasumi with plans for vengeance. Ranma pulled out a strawberry and handed it to Kasumi, who reached for the fruit but, at the last moment, Ranma pulled it out of her reach.

"Open your mouth and I'll give it to you." Ranma smirked.

"I hurt my ankle, not my hands." Kasumi then tried to grab the fruit from Ranma. But Ranma, being the martial artist, was faster and had better reflexes and, therefore, was able to keep it from her. Minutes later, Kasumi gave up; she crossed her arms in front of her and had her head turned away from Ranma in annoyance. That didn't work very well because it was at that moment her stomach reminded the world that she was hungry. With her hunger driving her, she devised a rather devious plan... a devious plan for her, anyway. She darted her hand towards the offending fruit which, as expected, Ranma pulled away. Her hand didn't stop there though, and it continued on to grasp Ranma's wrist. That was when Kasumi's lips formed a sultry smile capable of turning Ranma's mind into mush. Without breaking eye contact, she slowly moved towards her goal and, with unhurried grace, she took the entire strawberry in her mouth, wrapping her ruby lips around Ranma's fingers in the process, slowly pulling away, and sucking on her fingers at the same time. When Ranma's fingers were clear of her mouth she darted her tongue at the tip of Ranma's index finger. That little action at the end proved to be too much for Ranma's, now liquefied, mind causing her to faint backwards with a silly little grin plastered on her face. With the only obstacle between her and her main objective blissfully incapacitated, Kasumi gathered her prize and ravished the basket of food.

* * *

Half an hour later, Kasumi let off a content little sigh. She had eaten her fill and cleaned up after herself. She put the basket of food off to the side so Ranma could finish it when she awoke. As with almost all big meals, Kasumi soon found herself getting tired and with the steady sounds of raindrops beating in the shed she became sleepy. The shed was getting cold, and the only source of warmth was the fire Ranma had started earlier. Kasumi covered Ranma's prone form in a blanket from a nearby shelf, as she wanted to fix a place for herself and Ranma to sleep, but there weren't enough blankets on the shelves within easy reach to do so. So she had to choose, she could leave the blanket on Ranma and sleep without one, take the blanket for herself and leave Ranma without or the two of them could share it. She didn't mind leaving the blanket on Ranma but knew Ranma would. Ranma might be mad at her for not taking the blanket for herself because she was used to roughing it. If, by chance, she did get sick Ranma would put herself through a very bad guilt trip. The second option was out as Kasumi couldn't see herself being comfortable while making another suffer. The last option didn't seem that bad because they had already done it before. With her decision made, Kasumi carefully lay down and gathered the smaller girl in her arms and slowly drifted off to sleep.

* * *

When Ranma woke, the sun was just beginning to set and she could still hear the constant rhythm of rain drops outside. She snuggled closer to the source of heat near her and inhaled. 'mmmmm...that smells good.' she thought of the light scent of vanilla teasing her nose. Ranma slowly opened her eyes and stared at the sight in front of her. Her mind was still too sleepy to figure what was in front of her, so she closed her eyes, moved her head so close to the fabric in front of her that it tickled her nose and breathed in more of that enticing vanilla scent. When she let out a breath, she heard a faint moan. Moving her head back she glanced at where the sound came from, and froze in shock. 'Kasumi!' Ranma's mind had two warring instincts: The first was to move as far away and as quickly as possible from this spot The second was to stay perfectly still and hope that she could think of something else before Kasumi woke up. That was when her senses told her that something warm was wrapped around her back. Considering the position that they were in, Ranma knew that it was Kasumi's arms around her. And, since Kasumi's arms trapped her, Ranma settled on the second option. Ranma stayed perfectly still, until her eyes inadvertently drifted to where her nose was earlier. It was then that Ranma finally remembered that the two of them were only wrapped in thin towels. Ranma began to turn red as she realized that she nearly had her nose buried in Kasumi's cleavage. Her body instantly started to react to that line of thought and took a few minutes of closed eyes and sheer will before her body had calmed down enough to allow her to think coherently again. Ranma leaned her head back to watch Kasumi's face, so she could have something else to help her ignore the messages her body was sending her. As she continued to watch, only one thought repeatedly entered her mind. 

'God, she's so beautiful.'

Ranma tilted her head again, trying to get a better view of the sleeping beauty, only to have a lock of her red hair fall in front of her eyes and send her thoughts down the path of self degradation.

'Unlike me...I'm a freak. She deserves someone so much better than me. I'm dumb. All I do is cause trouble. I am nothing, and worth nothing, just like people keep telling me...' by now Ranma's aura had become a nearly visible storm of depression and was growing in size and strength. This was enough to wake Kasumi, who unconsciously shed a few tears when she initially felt the depth of Ranma's sadness.

Kasumi eyes had snapped open when she felt the now-enormous wave of depression wash over her. "Ranma! Ranma! What's wrong!"

Ranma was so lost in her own self-depreciative world that she could not hear Kasumi.

When Kasumi saw that her words were not getting through to the red-haired girl, she grabbed Ranma's chin and forced it up so that she could see Ranma's eyes. "Ranma, what's wrong!" Kasumi spoke a lot more forcefully then she had meant to, but the concern in Kasumi's voice somewhat reached through to Ranma.

Ranma's depression nearly overwhelmed her again and she sobbed out, "I don't deserve someone like you."

"What! Why!" Kasumi nearly demanded in a shocked voice.

"Because you threw me away once already!" Ranma screamed in a sorrowful voice.

Ranma tried, weakly, to pull away from her, but Kasumi's arms were strong enough to stop the attempts. Kasumi saw that she wasn't going to get any more from Ranma at the moment. She tightened her arms around the smaller girl and pulled Ranma closer to herself. Ranma resisted at first, but Kasumi's grasp was too tempting, and soon enough Ranma allowed herself to be comforted by Kasumi's embrace. For the next several minutes Ranma held on to Kasumi and, for the first time in a very long time, Ranma cried. Kasumi sat there holding the other girl and whispered kind, soothing words to try calming Ranma down. She didn't know what had set Ranma off emotionally, but whatever it was, it seemed to have left a huge scar. She had an idea of what Ranma screamed at her about, and if she guessed right, she would have a lot to make up for. After what seemed like hours, but was actually only a small fraction of one, Ranma quieted down and stopped shaking. Ranma didn't leave Kasumi's arms, but spoke from within their embrace.

"I'm...I'm sorry." Ranma sniffled after she spoke.

"It's okay Ranma." Kasumi waited a couple more minutes in silence, "Ranma, what's wrong?"

Ranma paused, "I can't tell you."

"Why?" Kasumi said in a quite voice.

"Because...because..." Ranma was reluctant to tell.

"It was my fault, right?" Kasumi tried to finish for Ranma.

"NO, it was mine!" For a moment the fire in Ranma's eyes returned, before drowning in despair again.

"Then what was it? I'm involved right?" Kasumi was determined to get an answer from Ranma.

Silence was Kasumi's only answer.

"Please tell me. Whatever this is, all I know is that it's hurting you, badly." Kasumi pleaded with Ranma.

Ranma was quiet, still unwilling to tell her.

"I know we're new at being a couple, but one thing I know is that if we really want to try and make this work, we need to talk and be truthful to each other." Kasumi explained in a near-angelic voice.

Ranma knew Kasumi was telling the truth, so with a reluctant breath she began. "Kasumi, do you remember the first day I met you all?"

Kasumi nodded. She had a feeling it was going to be this.

"I was still so angry and disgusted with myself that I wanted to run, and keep running, forever. I thought that no one would ever want me. The only reason I stayed was because of those few kind words Akane spoke to me. Then all that stuff where she walked in on me had to happen. I thought that she was going to be my friend but she had to rip that away from me over something I had no control over." Ranma's last sentence was spoken with a bitter anger, "Then I had to pick a fiancée from the three of you but instead of picking I was forced into Akane." Seeing that Kasumi was going to speak raised her finger and placed it on the older girl's lips. "Please, let me finish. Did you know that I wanted to pick you?"

Kasumi said nothing. The only thing that changed was that there was now regret in her eyes.

"It hurt that I couldn't pick the person that I might spend the rest of my life with because of this." Ranma ran her hand through her scarlet hair, bringing it forward so both of them could see it. "When I was rejected, it proved I was a freak. Having Akane call me one everyday kept reminding me that I was a freak, but that wasn't the biggest reminder... The biggest reason I knew I was a freak was seeing you everyday. Because I'm like this, I never had a chance, or even a choice, to be with you. It hurt, it hurt too much. Over time I learned to forget what I felt for you on that first day, and make sure that I wouldn't be hurt like that ever again. My other fiancées never really had a chance because I already picked you. I don't know, but maybe the reason I continued to drag the other girls along was to make them feel what I felt, or maybe it was so that I could forget about you. To be honest with you and with myself...the truth is I didn't choose you a few weeks ago, I chose you from the beginning."

Feeling that Ranma had finished, Kasumi carefully spoke, "Then why were you so sad? I am here with you now, and I want to stay with you."

"But for how long! I have nothing to offer you! I can't do anything in school, so I'm stupid. I have no money, so I'm poor. I have this curse, so I'm a freak. What do I have that would make you want to stay with me!" Ranma's voice was full of anger and sadness as she spoke.

"For now school doesn't matter and, given time, you can learn. I don't care if you have money or not. We could be living in a tent in the middle of nowhere but, as long as I am with you, I don't care. Ranma, you're far from a freak in any form. As long as you are you, I would be happy. And, as for what you could give me to make me stay with you, all I want is your heart." Kasumi's voice was full of warmth, but it still could not reach through Ranma's wall of despair.

"I can't give that to you because...because its already is yours...but that alone can't be enough." Ranma voice was now dead, like she was resigned to the fact that the words she spoke were destined to happen.

Kasumi felt anger growing within her. Ranma had given up and had no faith in herself. When she started speaking her words came out with a sharp edge. "It is, and will, be enough! What do you want me to do? Do you want me to get my own curse, so we could be together? If that is what it takes I WILL do it!"

Kasumi declaration stunned Ranma, who tried to speak, but Kasumi wasn't going to stop now that she had started.

"I betrayed my family. I betrayed my sister, Akane." her voice then dropped to below a whisper "I betrayed my...mother, to be with you. I want you to know something very important, to be with you..." Kasumi voice and eyes filled with determination, "...to be with you, I would betray them again!"

For someone to be so willing to do so much, who had already done so much, for her was too much for Ranma. All she could do was cup Kasumi's face in her hands and whisper two words that were not enough to describe how truly grateful she was, but were very appropriate.

"Thank You."

Kasumi looked at Ranma's, now tear-streaked, face. Ranma had a very rare smile on her face, a smile that Kasumi had never seen Ranma give anyone ever before: A smile of pure happiness. It was as if Ranma received the greatest gift in heaven. 'Given what I just told her' Kasumi thought, 'maybe in her eyes, she has.'

Ranma felt so good that she pulled as close to Kasumi as she could, ignoring the fact that only two towels separated their naked bodies, and fell asleep, the emotional exhaustion finally catching up to her in a physical manner.

Kasumi now knew that she had already meant so much to Ranma, and that Ranma meant no less to her. Kasumi intertwined herself with Ranma and the two were soon sleeping in a lover's embrace.

* * *

The next morning the two awoke to a cloudy, but bright, day. When Ranma woke, instead of her pervious reactions, she happily tried to worm her way deeper into Kasumi's surprisingly firm arms. 'Mmmmm...I guess all those years of housekeeping kept Kasumi in shape.' Ranma absently thought. She didn't really care; all that mattered was that Kasumi wanted to be with her, no matter the cost. To Ranma, these last few weeks had been the greatest in her entire life. 

With Ranma's breath sending shivers across Kasumi's bare skin, it didn't take long for the still-sleeping girl to wake. Kasumi woke to a pleasant tingling sensation and let off a soft moan. "Ranma..."

"Yes?...and good morning." Ranma almost purred out.

When Ranma spoke, she was so close her words, literally, caused the older girl to shudder in delight.

While still fighting with her body she spoke, "Can I get up?"

"No." Ranma was content to stay where she was.

Kasumi was tempted to agree with Ranma, but they had been gone for the entire night and she didn't want to worry Nodoka, or give her the wrong idea. So with a very reluctant sigh, she asked Ranma, "What about mother? We have been gone the whole night."

Faster then the eyes could see Ranma was out Kasumi's arms. "Oh god, I forgot. Mom has to be really worried by now."

Kasumi sat up and rolled her eyes, "She probably thinks you were very manly with me, and that she will be getting some grandchildren soon."

Ranma opened her mouth to reply, but figured Kasumi was probably right.

"Plus, she knows you lived a lot of your life outdoors, so anything that happens to us you can, and will, handle." Kasumi finished her thought.

Working together, Ranma and Kasumi quickly cleaned the shed as best they could. Ranma still didn't let Kasumi do much because of her ankle, which had healed very quickly but Ranma still didn't want Kasumi pushing it. At the moment Ranma couldn't replace the firewood they had used because everything outside was wet, so decided he would do it in a few days, if everything dried first. In a matter of minutes, the two of them had finished, redressed, and began making the slow and muddy track back to the house. In truth, Ranma could have gotten them back much faster, but the two liked the smell of fresh rain and the slow walk back together.

* * *

When the two finally made it back, they carefully removed their shoes as they entered the house, so as not to drag mud all over the place, and greeted Nodoka who was in the middle of making breakfast. Nodoka saw them in with a smile, and not the worried face Ranma was expecting, or the eager face Kasumi was somewhat dreading to see. 

"I see you two are okay." Nodoka said after her greeting.

Both Ranma and Kasumi nodded at the statement, prompting Nodoka to continue.

"I know you two won't mind, but breakfast is going to be leftovers from last night's dinner." Nodoka paused to see if either would object. Seeing that neither was going to, she continued speaking, "For future reference, if you two are going to have a night of mind-numbing 'fun' and are going to miss a meal, I would like to have notice ahead of time. That way I won't spend time making so much food that would otherwise be wasted."

Nodoka raised an eyebrow at the blush that developed on her red-headed daughter. It wasn't the heavy blush that Nodoka expected to see, but was, in fact, a light blush covering Ranma's delicate features, which piqued Nodoka's interest. Nodoka then smirked at Kasumi, due to the small, but not so innocent, smile that Ranma had on her soft lips. Kasumi didn't like that smirk it was the same one Ranma had worn previously, like the time he took her on a freefall down a cliff. She had a feeling she wouldn't enjoy whatever Nodoka had planned in response to Ranma's little smile.

"Ranma, would you go and clean yourself up?" Nodoka said as she addressed her, at the moment, daughter.

"Sure, come on Kasumi, you can use the bath first." Ranma began walking away.

"You go ahead Ranma. I would like to talk to Kasumi." Nodoka wanted to talk to her other daughter to see what had happened last night.

"Oh no, it would be improper to speak with you while I am such a mess." Kasumi skillfully dodged Nodoka's attempt to isolate and interrogate her, then quickly caught up with Ranma.

* * *

Kasumi wanted to soak for a bit longer, but breakfast was waiting for them. Her last meal was nearly twenty-four hours ago, and she was hungry and, if she was hungry, Ranma must be starving. Not wanting to make Ranma suffer, Kasumi quickly finished and let Ranma take his turn and, just as Kasumi thought he might, Ranma took his bath quickly as well. They came down together because Kasumi didn't want to be downstairs alone with Nodoka and Ranma conveniently provided the perfect shield. Kasumi was correct in guessing Ranma was going to be hungry. The two of them tore through the food like, well, like Ranma. Nodoka kept a humorous smile for the entire meal as she watched Kasumi mimic Ranma's eating habits. At the end of dinner, Nodoka discreetly sent Ranma to do some small task for her, leaving herself and Kasumi to wash the dishes and when the two found a good rhythm for the task, Nodoka sprung her trap. 

"So, do I need to prepare one of the other rooms for my new grandchild?" Nodoka now had a joyous smile on her face.

Kasumi froze and the bowl she was holding slipped back into the water.

"So, my son wasn't any good?" Nodoka sounded a bit disappointed.

Kasumi's newly emerging foot in the mouth disease made itself known again, "I didn't sleep with him."

Nodoka opened her mouth to interject, but Kasumi continued on.

"I slept with her." that statement caused Nodoka's jaw to drop. Not noticing Nodoka's reaction Kasumi continued to explain, "Her skin felt so nice and she so soft and she makes these absolutely yummy noises."

It was just after that statement when Ranma wandered in. He looked at his mother just as she turned to him and he saw a shocked expression change to one he hadn't seen in a long time. It was his mother's "my son is so manly" look.

Ranma managed to hear his mother shriek out, "My son is so womanly!" before his ribs were nearly caved in and his spine was being rearranged by his overly joyous mother.

Kasumi was ripped back to reality by her new mother's loud declaration, and immediately turned as red as Nodoka's new red highlights, and slowly started inching towards the door.

"Mom... can't breathe." Ranma managed to grasp out.

Nodoka held Ranma at arms length and looked at her now-blue-faced son with pride.

"Why are you so happy, Mom?" Ranma asked after he regained his breath, and his normal color.

"Because my daughter is a woman now, and no longer a virgin." Nodoka happily beamed.

"WWWWWWWWHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATTTTT!" Ranma considered fainting, but for the moment that wasn't a good option, "Where did you hear that!"

"Kasumi told me you slept with her." visions of grandchildren danced in her head.

"I did sleep with her" his mother's smile grew, "but that's all I did!"

Nodoka's smile fell, "So, there was no hot lesbian sex between the two of you indicating you two were comfortable with each other and, eventually, leading to my son performing his manly duty resulting in me becoming a grandmother in less then a year?" she deadpanned. Nodoka looked at Kasumi, who now had a foot through the exit of the kitchen.

"Uhhhh..." was Kasumi's articulate reply.

Ranma's reply was a bit more informative, "hot lesbian sex..." Blood started dripping down from his nose, his eyes rolled back into his head and he fainted, with a line of drool coming out of his mouth.

With Nodoka looking on Kasumi answered, "...hhhhhh...no..."

Nodoka's overly happy attitude fell, she mechanically finished washing the dishes, and walked away with an aura of gloom surrounding her. When Ranma woke he tried repeatedly to cheer his mother up but every time he got close to her, his mother turned her dark eyes on him, with her crushing aura of gloominess washing over him to stop his attempts. This proved to be a daunting task for Ranma, who usually just made a quick apology and an even quicker getaway. Kasumi tried a few times as well, but met with the same results.

* * *

All of this changed a few hours later, when Nodoka's attitude suddenly reversed itself. Both Ranma and Kasumi watched their mother's quick emotional change with a sense of dread as she became happy, almost giddy, called for a car, and left. They could only watch Nodoka leave, and fearfully await her return.

* * *

A little more than an hour after Nodoka had left, she returned with a near-cruel smirk and several decently-sized plain, brown, paper bags. The moment Nodoka set foot into the house; she called both a now female Ranma and Kasumi, and began 'the talk'. Nodoka pulled item after item from the bags and explained how they could be used. She pulled out video game controllers, bananas, chop sticks, tiger balm, handcuffs and many, many other items. Along with each item came a very detailed and explicit example of how it could be used, and where, and when it would have the greatest effect. How Nodoka came up with these examples, neither girl wanted to ask, for fear of what she'd tell them. At the end of Nodoka's mother/daughter/daughter talk, not only had Ranma passed out, again, but Kasumi had as well. Pleased with her children's reactions, Nodoka quickly rearranged them into a rather provocative position, and walked off to make dinner, but not without one final comment. 

"That should teach them what happens when they use a mother's desire for grandchildren to trick her."

* * *

After a couple of hours Ranma and Kasumi had yet to wake, so Nodoka decided to make a loud announcement that dinner was ready. Waiting a few seconds, she heard a muffled yelp and the sound of a lot clothes being rearranged. A few seconds later her daughters came in looking disheveled and blushing furiously. Nodoka smiled sweetly and walked into the kitchen to get dinner. When she brought it out, the two younger women started to sweat and tremble. 

Nodoka spoke, with well-faked concern, "Is there something wrong with dinner?"

"It's...it's fine." Ranma stuttered, her entire arm shaking as she picked up a piece of sushi. Now, one would think Ranma would be happy eating sushi and eating it faster then he normally would. The problem with this hypothesis came from one of his mother's more extreme examples from their earlier talk, one where sushi was used in a 'special way'. When Ranma slipped the piece of fish into her mouth, Kasumi's chopsticks clattered to the table top, and when Ranma looked over at Kasumi their eyes met for a split second, and both turned to look anywhere but at each other. This, in turn, made dinner a tense affair, at least for Ranma and Kasumi. Nodoka sat there, eating peacefully, and thoroughly enjoying the spoils of her plot for vengeance.

* * *

Over the next two days Nodoka happily tormented her children. She did so by placing certain items in places they're sure to come across them. Other times she would use simple play on words, which would be misinterpreted by one or both of them, which would result in yet another embarrassing incident. Nodoka had stopped actively trying to push Ranma and Kasumi together, mostly because their reactions were getting less and less extreme. Along with tormenting them, Nodoka had another purpose for this: She assumed that if Ranma and Kasumi became comfortable with that aspect of their coupling, they might be able to move their relationship further, and do so far more smoothly and easily than they would with her interference.

* * *

At the end of the week, Nodoka received a phone call which caused her to become excited and very animated. When Kasumi asked why, Nodoka told both her and Ranma that they would find out the next day. So Ranma and Kasumi had no choice but to wait until then to find out.

* * *

Early next morning something strange happened: they received a visitor. The visitor was familiar to Ranma; she was the young secretary the three had met in that building where they received a ride to their new home. 

"Thank you for coming to our home." Kasumi kindly greeted.

"Thank you for inviting me." The young lady replied in kind.

"May I see Miss Inoue? I have the paperwork she requested, and a warning." The woman was now speaking in a serious tone.

"Of course." Alarmed at their visitor's tone, Kasumi quickly led her to Nodoka.

Upon reaching Nodoka, who sat watching Ranma practice, Kasumi announced their guest.

"Welcome to our home, Sakiri." Nodoka warmly greeted, "I trust you are here to deliver the paper work I started earlier this week?"

"Yes." Sakiri handed Nodoka a large envelope, "And a warning."

By that point, Ranma had seen their guest and stopped practicing. He walked over just in time to hear what Sakiri had said.

Nodoka tensed and waited for Sakiri to continue.

"We found that Nabiki was snooping around our area, most likely looking for a clue to where you three are. We have also seen and heard that she sent the Kunos and a boy named Ryoga Hibiki into the area, probably as a tactic to scare information out of the people in the area. My suggestion to you is that if one of you chose to leave home, do it carefully because there are people looking for you."

"Thank you for telling us, Sakiri. We'll try to follow your advice." Nodoka spoke as she bowed to her guest.

As Sakiri turned around to leave, Kasumi spoke to her.

"Would you like to stay for a snack?"

"As much as I would love to, work calls." Sakiri spoke with a sigh of resignation.

"Maybe another time then?" Kasumi asked with disappointment.

With a nod, Sakiri replied, "Another time then."

Kasumi then escorted Sakiri to her car and made her way back to Nodoka. When she returned, Nodoka set out three cups of tea.

Ranma was the first to speak. "What are we going to do about Nabiki?" Ranma was edgy about having to deal with her.

"Don't worry about her for now. There's something more important to deal with right now." Whatever was delivered to her must be important, not even the mention of Nabiki looking for them seemed to bring down her mood.

"What's in the envelope?" Kasumi asked nervously. Something that could make her mother this happy was either very good for them or very bad for her and Ranma.

"These papers are very important and involve both of you. Earlier this week when I went to town, I looked up some information on the Saotome name, mostly what Genma had done to it during the last ten years. It turns out Genma had sullied the name to such an extent that...if I had stayed to read everything, I may have been there for days...as it was; I still ended up staying there past midnight. Normally, I would have gone ahead and taken care of this on my own, and I really wanted to, but I know neither of you were allowed to make any of the truly important decisions in your lives until recently. I decided this choice will be yours and yours alone."

"Are you asking me if I want to be removed from the Saotome registry and added to the Inoue registry?" Ranma had a clue about where this conversation was going, but didn't know why Kasumi had been included as well.

As for Kasumi, she stayed quiet, waiting for Nodoka to finish.

"In a way, yes, but there's more then that alone." Nodoka's voice had changed into the warm, motherly tone Ranma had rediscovered his love for in these last few months. "I've already changed my name back to Nodoka Inoue because of what Genma has done. Did know you have at least: 102 fiancées, over 30 million yen in accumulated debts, and you're wanted for questioning concerning nearly 1000 petty crimes? These are only the ones that the authorities know about, so there are likely more."

To say "Ranma was shocked" would be an understatement. Not only had Genma trained him in ways that were nearly demonic, and some that went beyond any of the cruel ideas an average demon might come up with; Genma had gone and destroyed any hope he'd had for a future.

Kasumi watched hopelessness settle into Ranma's features. She moved in behind him and pulled him close to her. "Ranma, trust our mother. I know she has a way out of this."

Nodoka smiled as she watched Kasumi, and continued, "Kasumi is correct. The best way I could think to salvage this was to remove you from the Saotome registry, but there is something special I wanted to talk to you about. Kasumi, your mother, Kimiko, was my best friend. Before I tell you what I have planned, can I ask the two of you a question?" Seeing them nod, she asked her question, "Eventually you two plan to marry, am I right?"

Ranma responded immediately, "If she accepts."

"Yes." Kasumi's answer was firm and confident.

The way her children answered made Nodoka's heart swell. Closing her eyes and remembering the past, she explained her plan. "Kasumi, I don't know if you know this or not but, Kimiko was my best friend. When we were young we were sisters, not in name, not on paper, but in our hearts. Shortly before she married your father, her parents, your grandparents, died. She was alone and, to her, I was the last family she had left. It was a little over a month after her parents died when she came to me with a proposal. It had taken her nearly a month to get through all of the paperwork and red tape, but she managed to draw up a contract that, basically, named me the head of her family line when she died. At first, I was shocked and didn't want to do it. I told her, the honor should fall to her children, but she countered with the argument that she could die, anytime and anywhere, and would feel better if someone who would truly care for her family were to be left in charge. I reluctantly signed, but today I'm glad she managed to talk me into it."

"But my mother left everything she owned to us; there was nothing left." Kasumi had started shaking as soon as the subject of her dead mother was brought up. It was now Ranma's turn to comfort Kasumi; Ranma moved to sit behind her, gathered her into his lap and, while his mother talked, held her.

"Everything she personally owned, yes, but everything else fell to me. At first, I was going to hand everything over to your father, but he was, and still is, a complete wreck, so I held on to everything and prayed for the strong man Kimiko fell in love with to return." Nodoka paused to see how Kasumi was taking this, "At the moment, I hold your mother's childhood home, a dojo, and their financial information." Nodoka watched as Kasumi visibly relaxed in her son's lap.

"You said this will help Ranma solve some of his problems. What does my mother have to do with this?" Kasumi asked, wanting to know where the discussion was leading.

"The line carrying her family name ended when your grandfather died, after she took the Tendo name. What I am suggesting, is that you take up the Enjeru name. I want Ranma to take the Inoue name, at least until you two get married, when that happens I want Ranma to take up the Enjeru name as well." Once Nodoka finished, she waited to hear what they thought of her plan.

Not surprisingly, Ranma spoke first, "I thought I was going to take the Inoue name. Why the change?"

Expecting this, Nodoka supplied her reasoning, "I'll admit, it is a bit selfish, but I want to honor my friend. I know she would be proud to call you her son as much as I am. I will be just as happy if you take the Inoue name, but as I said when we started this conversation, the choice is yours and yours alone."

"I accept. She was the one who, with a few simple words, got me to follow my heart. I'd be proud to bear the Enjeru name." Ranma voice left no doubt about his choice.

"Kasumi..." Nodoka gently asked.

"I...I don't know." Her voice was confused and weak; nothing like the Kasumi that both Ranma and Nodoka had come to know.

Nodoka was surprised; she would have expected Ranma would be the one resisting the idea. She, along with Ranma, were very concerned, believing that Kasumi needed some time to sort her feelings out, Nodoka ended their little family meeting. "You both have a lot to think about, so take your time, you don't have to make a choice right away. In the mean time, lunch is a few hours away, so you two go, and I'll call you when it's ready."

"Thank you." With that, Kasumi quickly excused herself.

Ranma was about to follow, but his mother held his arm.

"Let's give her some time and, when she ready, hopefully she will come to one, or both, of us." Nodoka tried to console her son.

Ranma looked at his mother, cast a regretful look in the direction Kasumi had gone, and nodded.

* * *

Over the next few days, Kasumi tried to act as though nothing was wrong but, to Ranma and Nodoka, it was painfully obvious she was distant. She still went with Ranma when he, or Nodoka, suggested something, but she'd started to do things she hadn't done before. When she was with Ranma on their 'dates', she no longer had the happy, inner fire that Ranma had come to know and love. Ranma sat with Kasumi every night as she, almost lifelessly, gazed at the stars. When helping Nodoka with the chores around the house, Kasumi was mechanical, cold, and distant. She no longer displayed the little hints of joy that normally accompanied her actions. When Nodoka tried to tease her, Kasumi responded with nothing but a cold shoulder.

* * *

Nearly a week had passed, and Ranma was beginning to get annoyed with Kasumi. He didn't know if what he was planning to do would help or hurt their relationship, but he knew that talking about it might help; so he was going to force Kasumi to talk about it, even if it did hurt their relationship. Ranma resolved himself, but he couldn't help the bit of fear that had made its way into his heart. 

He walked up to Kasumi as she was blankly staring at the stars again. "Kasumi?" Ranma was proud of himself as he had successfully managed to keep any hint of fear from his voice.

"Yes, Ranma?" Kasumi answered with a serene smile, a smile Ranma had begun to hate because it was Kasumi's old mask.

"Can we talk?" Ranma wasn't sure where this was going to lead, but he was going to see it through, good or bad.

"Sure" came a cheerful reply but, to Ranma, it sounded lifeless.

Ranma wasn't sure where to start, so he asked the question that concerned him the most, "Kasumi, what's wrong?"

"I'm fine Ranma, there's nothing wrong with me." Again Kasumi smiled that smile, but this time Ranma's reaction was a bit different. This time, the smile sent a spark of anger through him.

"Your lying! Do I mean so little to you that you can't even talk to me?" Seeing that same repulsive smile on her face as she was about to answer only served to further anger Ranma. He cut her off in a much louder voice, "Why the hell are you acting like this? Why? Is it because you don't want me to change my name? You don't want me to have your mother's name?" Ranma saw Kasumi flinch at the mention of her mother, and knew he was getting closer to the problem. "Maybe you're the one who doesn't want your mother's name?"

Kasumi acted as if she'd been struck, and Ranma knew what was causing Kasumi to feel so troubled. "So that's it? You don't want your mother's name? From the few things I've learned about her; she was a great woman, and anyone would be proud to inherit her name!"

That was too much for Kasumi, who screamed, in a voice just as loud, back at Ranma, "I betrayed her! You call that something to be proud of? I hit my little sister and stole her fiancé! Is that anything to be proud of? I don't deserve to be her daughter let alone have her name! I would be nothing more then a disgrace!" The last sentence ended in a sob; then Kasumi turned, ran to her room, and locked the door. Shocked by Kasumi's reasoning for her recent behavior, Ranma let Kasumi run past him.

Nodoka had rushed in when she heard the screaming start. Though she knew couples have arguments, it was still a shock to see her son and future daughter-in-law having one so soon. She, like Ranma, also stood there immobile when Kasumi ran to her room. After mentally reviewing what she had heard of the argument, she figured Ranma had finally forced Kasumi's problem into the open. Taking a breath to calm herself, she approached her son. "I hope you understand and accept what this has done... Or what it might do."

Ranma, with a defeated sigh, looked at his mother, "I know what I did, and I'm not happy with it, but the Kasumi that was here for the past few days wasn't the Kasumi I love." Ranma then walked to his own room. He wanted to go and comfort Kasumi, but knew she wasn't ready to see him yet, and he could admit to himself that he was afraid to see her.

As he got ready to sleep for the night, he saw Kimiko's diary; grabbing it he said a prayer as he clutched the book, and fell asleep. 'Please, help Kasumi.'

* * *

Even dreams weren't an escape for Kasumi. She sat on her mother's bed, in a white house dress, with her knees pulled to her chest, and sobbing with her eyes closed. Kasumi refused to open her eyes because anything and everything here reminded her of her dead mother. With her thoughts constantly beating on her soul, she didn't notice another being enter the room, and when arms encircled her she desperately hugged back. She didn't know who it was, nor did she care, she needed something, she needed anything, she needed this, so for the first time in over a decade, Kasumi held nothing back, and she cried tears that made even heaven nearly weep and wonder 'Why?', and 'What made this angel shed so many soul shaking tears?'. Kasumi cried for everything she hadn't in the past decade, the loss of her mother, her father, her sisters, friends that were and friends that could have been, loves that she turned away and, finally, for her betrayal. Eventually she had nothing to cry for and her tears stopped, but she did nothing to move away from the comforting embrace. She felt just as safe as she did in Ranma's arms. 

She would have said nothing, enjoying the silence, had her visitor not spoken. "I will always love you, Kasumi," the mysterious stranger spoke with her own angelic voice.

Hearing that voice, Kasumi acted on instinct. She ripped herself away, using her legs to push herself off the bed as well; turning to face the person still on the bed she could utter only a single word, "Mama?"

Looking at Kasumi, the older women knew her daughter wouldn't speak. "It's nice to see you, and you've grown into such a beautiful young woman."

Kasumi didn't believe her eyes; she slowly reached out a trembling hand and, equally slowly, caressed her mother's cheek.

It could easily be seen where Kasumi got her beauty, and her divine smile, just by looking at Kimiko. There were some subtle differences, like Kimiko's light brown, almost silver, hair and her light blue eyes, instead of Kasumi's grayish-brown. If one was to look at them, not knowing their relationship, they would likely think Kimiko and Kasumi to be twins, instead of the mother/daughter they were. Kimiko also wore a pure white kimono, which seemed to glitter in the light.

Sensing this woman was really her mother, Kasumi dove to embrace her again; unlike the sorrowful embrace they held before, this one was a joyful and happy one. After what felt like a few minutes had passed, while still firmly in her mother's arms, Kasumi asked, "How?"

Kasumi tried to answer her own question, but knew of only one thing that could bring her together with her mother. She had died. Her mind immediately brought up an image of Ranma. She was dead, and she couldn't be with Ranma. 'No...'

Kimiko knew her daughter was very intelligent and, as far as her daughter knew, there was one way for them to be together here. Feeling the anguish coming from her daughter, Kimiko knew exactly what Kasumi was thinking and, moving her daughter away from her, she used her hand and slowly forced Kasumi to look directly into her eyes, "You haven't died."

"But...But..." were the only words Kasumi could think to say.

"Trust me, you didn't die." Kimiko spoke in a resolute voice.

"How...How, then?" Kasumi felt better, once she realized she could still be with Ranma.

"Did you know that boyfriend of yours, Nodoka's son, is a very special person?" Kimiko questioned her daughter.

Kasumi happily nodded as only a girl in love could.

"Do you remember that diary of mine Ranma found?" Seeing Kasumi nod, Kimiko continued, "Somehow he linked his ki to the diary, and used it like a beacon to summon me."

What her mother said didn't shock her; to Kasumi almost nothing Ranma did could surprise her anymore.

"Now, could you tell me why you were so sad when I got here?" concern was evident in Kimiko's voice.

That brought up a torrent of emotion in Kasumi, and in the end she didn't resist it. She went on to explain Nodoka's plan, then to how she felt, and finally how that resulted in her yelling at Ranma.

"I did all of those things and betrayed you, I'm not a person who deserves to have the Enjeru name." After finishing, Kasumi was not willing to look at her mother.

"Kasumi, I am very proud of you and I would love for you to take my family name." Kasumi was taken aback by her mother, and when her mother spoke there was absolutely no doubt, "You chose the path your heart desired, and you are now walking that path, follow your heart, and have no regrets. I know this will hurt Akane but, to tell you the truth, she might have to be hurt in order to grow up. I have watched all of you grow this past decade, and I am very disappointed in what you three have become. Your father has completely failed as a parent; I almost hate him for what he has forced you and Nabiki to do. He has spoiled Akane by not disciplining her when she needs to be. Akane doesn't even know what a martial artist is, for Soun never taught her. I do not like what has become of Nabiki, even though necessity, and your father's inaction, has forced her to become the cold and greedy person she has. I see glimpses of the kind-hearted and energetic Nabiki I remember, but she has hidden it so deep I don't know if she is even aware it's still there. Maybe you can help to bring it out again. Did you know that when you started taking over the duties in the home I was so proud of you at first? But, over time you were the one who came to disappoint me the most."

Kasumi raised her head as she heard the praise, but it quickly fell as she learned of her mother's disappointment.

"I was happy that every thing I taught you about taking care of a home was being used perfectly, but when you started to give up every thing else for the home I became upset. You gave up your friends, you gave up on school, you even gave up your future, all to become what? You became nothing more then a slave. I remember you used to love the martial arts as much as Ranma does. I spent hours arguing with your father over it, I taught you my school's style against his wishes, and you gave it all up on a whim. You stopped practicing it, you even stopped thinking about practicing it, like it was never important to you. That hurt me, it was the last thing I received from your grandparents and, when you stopped, it really hurt." Kimiko stopped and gathered her daughter to her, now very close to breaking into tears once again, and into her lap, "Lately though, I couldn't be any more pleased with you."

"Really?" Kasumi looked up at her mother, tears still pooled in her eyes, but curiosity shone brightly behind those tears.

"As I said earlier, you started to follow your heart again, and you started truly growing up; you stopped acting as though you were being forced to be that way. Maybe you can help your sister grow up too."

"Thank you, mama." Kasumi sat, relishing the first time she had with her mother in over a decade.

A bit later, Kasumi was roused by sounds of her mother giggling.

"What's so funny?" Kasumi couldn't help but giggle as well because, like her own, her mother's laughter was just as contagious.

"-giggle- I was just remembering some of the things that you and Ranma did during these past few weeks. -giggle-"

"Like?" Kasumi's cheeks were tinted red as she asked, she knew that there was a good chance she was going to get very embarrassed, but she wanted to know anyway.

With a very familiar glint in her eye, Kimiko answered, "I believe...you still owe Ranma a... you still owe Ranma -snicker- your cherry."

Kasumi was proved correct as her face turned cherry red, and she opened her mouth to respond, but was cut off by her mother.

"And, when am I going to get some grandchildren to watch over?" Kasumi's mother asked in a semi-scolding tone.

All Kasumi could do was bury her head in her arms and, in a muffled voice, say "Now I know why you and Nodoka were best friends."

"Hahahahahaha...oh, that reminds me of the time Nodoka gave you and Ranma 'the talk', that really brings back some memories."

It took a moment for Kasumi to truly understand the implications of her mother's statement, to which Kasumi responded, "EEEEEEEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!" There where some things that children should never learn about their parents.

Kimiko retaliated with, "Feh, I'm pretty sure you were going to try some of that stuff on little Ranma-chan."

Kasumi was at a cross-road, to one side was little Ranma-chan and lots of toys, and to the other was the information that Nodoka and her mother had... "EEEEEEEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWWWWWW!"

Kimiko rolled her eyes and laughed at her daughter's discomfort.

"Kasumi, my daughter, I must go now, it's almost time for you to wake up." Kimiko spoke in a comforting voice.

Kasumi was instantly alarmed, "But, I don't want to lose you again!" Again tears had begun gathering in her eyes.

Kimiko cupped her daughter's face in her hands, using her thumbs to clear away the tears, "Oh, Kasumi, you never lost me. You may not have seen me, but I've always been with you, and I always will be. You're my daughter, and you have so much ahead of you... I wouldn't miss it for anything. In fact, I have something to ask of you."

Kasumi nodded.

"Please take up the art again, you are the last who can learn my... no, our school; but, more importantly, the few times I have seen you truly happy where when you were practicing the art, and I want to see you smile like that again. Ask Nodoka to show you where our family dojo is, and once you get to the dojo, you'll find scrolls detailing our entire school hidden beneath the floorboard under the family shrine."

Kasumi nodded again.

"If you want to talk to the stars, or to your future husband, I'll be listening. Remember, I will always be watching over you, and mostly defiantly that boyfriend of yours... he really lives up to his name." Kimiko finished with a lecherous smirk.

It took a couple of seconds to figure out what her mother was talking about, but when she did she developed a small nosebleed. Just as the two started to fade away, Kasumi yelled out in embarrassment, "Moooooommmmmmmmmmm..."

* * *

For the fist time in days, Kasumi woke up with a genuine smile on her face. The first thing she did was rush out of bed and go looking for Ranma. She found him as he was walking in from an intense morning workout, which was partially a result of their argument last night, her reaction to it, and his usual morning routine. When he caught sight of her, he froze like a zebra cornered by a cheetah. Ranma's reaction was a small part him not being ready to be confronted by Kasumi yet, and a large part due to Kasumi wearing a small white nighty where most of the material was see-through and the rest was lace designed to draw attention to certain parts of her body. 

In an instant she was on top of him, mashing their bodies and mouths together, and after a few brief seconds she pulled away, about to tell Ranma how thankful she was to see him, but got a good look at him first.

Ranma's body was limp, his eyes were glazed over, and his mouth had remained in the same position Kasumi left it in.

Hearing a chuckle, Kasumi looked over at Nodoka and flushed as she realized the older woman was holding a small camcorder in front of her, recording the entire thing, "I think you broke him."

* * *

Author's Notes: As always, I would like to thank my pre-reader DelShalDar. Drkjester I haven't been able to contact you in a while, if you read this pass me an email. 

Anyways, as always, you can leave a review or e-mail me a comment at:

tsunami(underscore)saotome(at)yahoo(dot)com

Reviewer Responses:

I would like to thank everyone you took the time to review my story even those who took the time to read it. I hope hear from everyone again and hopefully even more people.

JonnyG: You Rock! (Sorry couldnt think of anything else to say) Thank you like always!

Wonderbee: Thank you. Kuno is up next he ties into how I will deal with Kodachi.

Ranko: I'm funny? I never knew that! J Thank you!

Nobody Special: I know that I have Ranma speak to formally but I've started two other stories and in both I've tried to mimic Ranma's rough speech but I made him speak this way because I felt more comfortable writing him like this. Since this was the first story I've put out I wanted something I was comfortable with. Maybe in the future in my other stories I'll write with him using different speech patterns.

Dennisud: I believe that to I think that playfully hitting is fine but what Akane and other characters do is to much. I really like my Nodoka, I wanted to make her seem a bit off but still there enough to be a good mother. Originally I had something like the old Kasumi in mind for her but that didn't really fit so when I was free writing this Nodoka just seem to grow.

Shinji the good Sharer: feh, you started it weren't you the poor shmuck running away from Kasumi, didn't you also throw Belldandy and a few others in there too?

...: I remember that and her leaving with him would mean that it would hurt her family because they were not ready to take care of them selves. Kasumi could be forever chained to her family because they were never making any serious effort to learn how to take care of them selves. I didn't want that so I forced the issue and hopefully this chapter will help make Kasumi's feels a bit clearer.

James Axelrad: The answer will come just keep reading. As for schooling I will deal with it eventually but for now I write to get away from school so I havent really thought about it.

Oh and flames will be tossed into Akane's cooking. Then when they're alive be force fed her cooking to die a slow, painful death.


	6. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I don't own Ranme 1/2 and am doing this for the fun of it.

Only you...

By TsunamiSaotome

It was an hour later that a freshly dressed Kasumi was bowing and apologizing to a recently awake Ranma and delighted Nodoka. Nodoka was happy Kasumi had apparently resolved whatever was troubling her and returned to being the daughter she had come to love in the previous few weeks. Ranma was ecstatic to know that Kasumi was the woman he had come to love again; also he was glad his gamble last night had helped Kasumi, instead of damaging their relationship. Best of all, he received a kiss for his actions. Kasumi finally stopped apologizing as Nodoka spoke.

"It's okay. Ranma and I are glad that you've retuned to normal. One thing that we're wondering is what happened last night that's got you so happy?"

Ranma nodded agreeing with his mother.

Kasumi stood up and addressed the two in front of her, "Okay, but go sit down at the table and let me make some tea. It will take a bit of time to tell you the whole story.

Mother and son complied with Kasumi's request and went to settle themselves at the table. Minutes later, Kasumi approached to the two with a tray holding cups and a pot of hot tea. After taking a moment to compose herself, she began to speak about her dream. Omitting certain details that were disturbing and ones she didn't want to think about. She also skipped the part where her mother wanted her to continue the art again; she would wait until after breakfast before telling that part. When Kasumi finished her story, Ranma was the first to respond.

"I'm very grateful to her for helping you, and also for helping me find you." Ranma easily accepted that Kasumi's mother, though dead, had visited her daughter in her sleep. After all, stranger things had happened to Ranma before, many times, in fact.

"I'm also glad that Kimiko intervened, because I can see that you two have something special, as I'm sure she can as well." Nodoka was very happy with the knowledge that her best friend approved of her son.

"Well, I'm beginning to really stink, so I should use the furo." With that Ranma started to make his way to his room. He'd taken about three steps before being interrupted by Kasumi.

"Could you wear a towel while bathing?" Kasumi quickly asked.

"Hmmm...why?" Ranma was confused at the odd request.

"eh he he...uhh...no reason...never mind." Kasumi tried to retract her previous statement, realizing she'd embarrassed herself.

Ranma and Nodoka directed odd looks at Kasumi before going off to do their tasks. Ranma to his much needed soak, and Nodoka to start the breakfast preparations interrupted by Kasumi's explanation.

As the two were leaving, Kasumi could feel her mother give her a raspberry then follow Ranma.

Sighing in defeat, Kasumi walked to the kitchen and started to help Nodoka make their morning meal. She couldn't do anything to stop her mother from peeking in on Ranma short of putting up wards, but knowing that both of her mothers were best friends, she knew that her mother would find a way to get back at her, most likely through Nodoka... er, her other mother.

Soon enough, Ranma finished his bath and breakfast was over. The only odd thing during the meal was Ranma had constantly been sneaking peeks at Kasumi. He was still on an emotional high from his little gamble which had, thankfully, succeeded.

When all three finished, Kasumi took a breath and steadied herself, "There was something else that happened in my dream that I didn't tell you." Seeing that she now had the full attention of both Ranma and Nodoka, she continued, "At the end of my time with mother, she asked me to start practicing her...our school again. So, there is a request I would make of both of you... Ranma, could you start training me? And mother, could you take me to the Enjeru dojo?"

Nodoka was quick to nod; while, Ranma was very hesitant.

"I... I don't know Kasumi..." Ranma saw that Kasumi was hurt because of what he said and quickly explained himself, "I don't know if I can be a good teacher. I mean, I've only had one example of a teacher, and the only person who deserves to be taught like that would be the teacher himself."

"Ranma, I understand you have doubts but this is something very important to me, and I want to share it with the people I care for. I trust and believe in you." Kasumi's voice was one that Ranma had not heard of very much in his life until very recently. It was a voice of warmth, love, and utter devotion.

Reluctantly, Ranma agreed. He still had doubts about how well he could teach and train her but the sheer amount of faith Kasumi had in him moved him enough to try.

"I'll arrange for a car in the afternoon. Is that all right with you, Kasumi?" Nodoka asked, "Both of you go get a couple days worth of clothes ready, it's been nearly a year since I visited."

"How often do you go there?" Kasumi wanted to know.

"At least two or three times a year, maybe more if I get too lonely." Nodoka's face grew distant as she recalled most of the times she spent at her best friend's old home.

Kasumi took Nodoka's hand, "This time we could make happy memories, like when you and my mother were together, because..."

Ranma picked up, "...you won't be alone."

Nodoka smiled in gratitude at her children's attempt to cheer her up. "I want to spend at least a week there. We're going to clean the place up, and I'm sure Kasumi would like to spend some time getting to know her mother's first home."

Ranma and Kasumi quickly agreed and soon were in their respective rooms packing for an extended stay.

Within the hour Sakiri had arrived and the three of them quickly loaded everything into the black car. The car ride was a relatively quiet one. Kasumi was thinking of what her mother's childhood home would be like. Nodoka was reliving better times she had at her friend's home. Ranma was thinking of ways he could train Kasumi that didn't seem too extreme. The only bad thing about that was Ranma had developed a very warped sense of what was extreme and what was not. While Ranma was thinking he was staring vacantly at the passing scenery. Ranma was staring vacantly at the passing scenery as he debated the merits and flaws of the various training methods he'd been exposed to.

Had he been paying attention, he would have noticed as the car moved from the heavily forested area surrounding their home to a lightly wooded area surrounding a small community. They passed a small, empty, school that was out for break, a small market place, and several townspeople going about their business. By simply looking around one could tell that, despite looking like a small and rural village, the town was an upper-class community. There were some obvious signs of wealth, such as the majority of the cars were very expensive, the homes in the area were huge compared to the normal Japanese home, and each home was surrounded by a good amount of space. Along with the obvious signs there were many subtle ones as well. If one were to look close enough, they could see that almost everything that was sold was expensive, the people they passed were wearing expensive clothing or jewelry, and the town looked like it was kept extremely clean. After a short, twenty-minute, drive their black car pulled into an enormous house that easily set itself apart from its peers in the area.

"Children, this will be our home for a while." When she spoke, her voice pulled her children from their thoughts. Ranma and Kasumi stared in awe. They had thought their other home was big, but this place was bigger.

The house was more like a small mansion and was easily twice the size of Nodoka's summer home. It was a surprisingly simple wooden home, but what made it so impressive was it sheer size. It had, what appeared to be, two triangular roofs put together, but on closer inspection it was two separate buildings connected by a stone pathway. The larger building had a window in the triangle of the roof, and below that window was an oak brown door that was the same color as the roof. The rest of the front of the house was painted white. In the front of the house was the driveway, it was in the shape of an semi-circle with both ends accessible to the main road.

When the car stopped, Kasumi quickly convinced Ranma to bring in her things and went looking around the house. The front door opened to a small hallway, which led to the main living room. When Kasumi first walked into the room she noticed that the room was decorated with many traditional items and also had many modern things tastefully mixed in. To her right she could see a set of stairs. Kasumi went to her left and through a set of double doors...and nearly had an orgasm. On one side she could see many traditional tools for her to cook with; on the other she could see a modern kitchen with many of the newest kitchen appliances available. She made her way to what looked like a giant seasoning rack, looking at the herbs nearly made her knees buckle, here was every herb and spice she could think of. What made her wet and caused her knees to almost fail was the amount of rare and expensive herbs she saw there. She also developed a couple of thoughts of what the food would do to Ranma when she served it, or what Ranma would do to her when she was served with the food. Kasumi resisted the urge to smack herself, 'I have been spending too much time around both my mothers, I'm becoming perverted.' Kasumi thought to herself.

Shaking most of the naughty thoughts from her mind, she exited through the door at the upper right corner furthest away from her entrance to the room. Walking through the doorway led her to the dining area with a wooden table. To her left were sliding doors that opened to an engawa veranda, to her right was a hallway back to the living area. Making her way through the doors and a short hallway that were in front of her, Kasumi found herself in a tea room. Returning to the dining room, she exited through the veranda, most of the open area looked like it was set up to be a training ground. To her right were two paths, one running parallel to the veranda to the second building, the second path also ran to the right but to the left of the dojo and circled a Japanese style garden. She could see some Koi swimming in the pond that was obviously the centerpiece of the garden. Kasumi moved along the path parallel to the veranda and paused at the entrance of the second building.

It was her mother's dojo... and now it was hers...

Kasumi tentatively took one step inside, then another. She could see that the dojo had been very well cared for, and she could also see it had been used constantly until these recent few years. She could sense the centuries of dedication that passed through this dojo. Feeling intimidated and unworthy, she backed away, and was about to turn and run back to the house, but a firm, strong hand grabbed hers and held her in place. Frantically spinning around her eyes locked onto...Ranma's warm, handsome and loving face, and behind him Nodoka was exuding a secure and comforting aura.

"I..." was all Kasumi could get out before Nodoka cut her off.

"Your mother sent you here, so she believes you can learn she school; I know and believe you can, as well, and..."

"...I do to. I don't know how well I can teach you but I have no doubts in my mind, soul, or heart that you can, and will, master the fallen angels' schools of martial arts." With each word Ranma slowly guided Kasumi to the shrine in the dojo.

When the three of them reached the shrine, all three bowed in respect and offered a silent prayer. Kasumi, though, added one more: "Please let me prove to myself that I am worthy."

* * *

Kasumi had carefully kneeled and removed the floorboard revealing six carefully labeled boxes: Novice, Intermediate, Advance, Master, Grand Master, and finally Forbidden. She took the boxes with the beginner scrolls and then put the floorboard back. She paused for a couple of seconds, then glanced at Ranma.

"We'll begin tomorrow, for today let's just get settled in and rest, okay?" Ranma answered the question in her gaze.

After that, the three gathered their things and went off to find rooms to claim as their own. Next to the stairs was a set of empty rooms that went unclaimed, up the stairs there were four bedrooms, one large master chamber, two smaller rooms below it, and another off to the side of the master room.

Kasumi tried to claim one of the smaller rooms, but Nodoka would have no part of it and ordered Ranma to take Kasumi's luggage and place it in the master bedroom. Kasumi started to argue but was silenced by Nodoka. Nodoka explained that she had given Sakiri the papers that would make Kasumi the official head of the Enjeru clan and that, by all rights and means, the master bedroom was hers. Kasumi relented after that and entered her new room. The room itself was large, being about the same size as the main living area on the floor below, though was very bare, it only had two pieces of furniture: a huge bed, and a very old mirror. The most notable thing that she found about the bedroom was that it had its own private furo. While Kasumi and Ranma were distracted by the room itself, Nodoka had started to move Ranma's stuff into it as well. Nodoka had just finished arranging Kasumi's lingerie and Ranma's boxers and admiring her work when the other two occupants finally noticed what she was doing.

'Ack!' summed up their simultaneous reactions.

Nodoka was ushered out of the room by the now red faced couple and sat in the hall pouting watching all of her work being undone. Ranma moved his things into the room closest to Kasumi's, and the two quickly settled in. Nodoka temporally withdrew from her endless battle for grandchildren to start lunch and devise another plan to get her children to share a bed.

Soon enough, Ranma and Kasumi wandered down from their rooms after smelling lunch being prepared.

"Mother, where did you get the meat, I was here earlier and didn't see any?" Kasumi blushed as remembered her reactions when she explored this room.

Nodoka looked at Kasumi and, at seeing Kasumi's blush, she cast a sideways glance towards Ranma, and then answered her daughter, "When I called Sakiri, I asked her to do a small grocery run for me, but we only have enough for lunch so you two will have to go get some more food for dinner."

Ranma wasn't really paying attention; he was busy trying to get a taste of lunch. While Nodoka was talking with Kasumi her hands were busily fending off Ranma's attempts at a pre-lunch snack.

"Okay." Kasumi grabbed Ranma's arm and pulled him away from the food causing him to pout, setting off a round of chuckling from Nodoka and Kasumi.

"Could you and Ranma go set the table?" Nodoka directed her request at Kasumi.

"Sure." Kasumi dragged a now distressed Ranma away from the food. Nodoka smiled at her children's antics then quickly turned her attention back to making lunch.

* * *

After Lunch, while Kasumi was busy cleaning up, Nodoka took Ranma to her room. Just like when the three of them first went to their new home, Nodoka also had a fully finished room in this home as well. As with her room at the other house the room was very simply decorated. The bed was covered in a white satin bedspread but when Ranma took a closer look he could see a floral design done in a light sparkling white thread. The one difference between both rooms was that this room had lots, maybe hundreds, of figures and other little items were carefully arranged around the entire room. 

"Here." Nodoka had walked over to one of the dressers and pulled out a huge amount of yen.

"I can't!" was Ranma's first response, but was quickly cut off by his mother.

"Yes, you can. Consider it your allowance." Nodoka's voice meant that there was no arguing the point.

Ranma conceded to his mother and counted the money and nearly dropped the wad, "There's 100,000 yen here!"

His mother's causal response was, "So?"

"It's so much!" Ranma, in his entire life, never thought that he would be holding this much money.

"You two are going to get supplies for dinner and, honestly, the two of you need a bigger selection of clothes!" Nodoka remarked.

"Clothes shopping..." Ranma wined.

"It's not too bad. You could take Kasumi shopping for some lingerie. I seem to remember that you enjoyed what she had on this morning." Nodoka's last comment had the desired effect on Ranma that she wanted.

Ranma flushed as his eyes gained a far away look.

Nodoka gently pushed the preoccupied Ranma out of her room and helpfully left him in front of Kasumi's door.

It was a few minutes later when Kasumi went to get something from her room and found Ranma standing in front of her door with a dazed look on his face.

"Ranma?" Kasumi probed.

"He he...white...lacy...see-through...eh he he..." Images form earlier that morning flooded Ranma mind and overrode his higher brain functions.

Kasumi blushed as her imagination, thanks to her mother's constant teasing, came up with what Ranma was imagining; "Is there anything you wanted?"

Snapping out of his daze, he spoke the one thought that had all but filled his mind, "Let's go shopping for some lingerie."

Instead of the chestnut-haired angel swaying in Ranma's fantasy, Kasumi's imagination supplied her with a scantly clad redhead posing shyly and offering herself up to anything Kasumi could come up with.

Ranma was woken from his daydream by, what sounded like, the word 'Grandchildren' being whispered.

The first sensation he felt was that of his left arm being wrapped around something, his right hand gripping something firm and toned. Also there was something warm and 'nice' pressed against his abs. He slowly opened his eyes and found himself looking at a... his... timeless beauty: Kasumi Enjeru. He pulled his arm in a bit tighter, bringing Kasumi just a bit closer to him. Whatever his hand was resting on felt a bit different, and upon looking down, he almost fainted, almost suffering a vicious nosebleed in the process.

Ranma froze, and again his long denied hormones began to react.

Somehow his hand had bunched up the left side of Kasumi's dress, then managed to find its way underneath her dress, and seemed to be rested on her outer thigh. When he had moved his hand higher, he had inadvertently exposed Kasumi's light blue lace panties to his field of vision.

Kasumi was distracted from her imagination when she felt something rough and yet, somehow, soft being drawn across her sensitive skin. When her senses began to return to her, Kasumi was flooded with warmth, as well as a healthy dose of arousal. Almost happily, she drowned in the feeling that her body was exuding. She felt her hands on something hard as she slowly began to flex her hand... no, it wasn't hard, just very firm. After feeling whatever it was her hand had been massaging shiver, she opened her eyes only to find her own blue-gray eyes trapped by Ranma's sapphire orbs.

'Those are Ranma's eyes, but they're so different.' was Kasumi's first thought. Ranma's eyes showed shock, fear, and... lust. 'He wants me... and only me...' and for the first time in her entire life, her intense sexual desires overwhelmed her rational mind.

Ranma stared into Kasumi's eyes, which held something that Ranma had only seen in his dreams. Kasumi elicited the same reactions and emotions in him now as she did in his dreams and fantasies, except these feelings were real, and so much more powerful. Ranma could feel the fire of lust and desire swirling around Kasumi, which only amplified what he felt coming from within himself. 'She's... perfect, and could have anyone she wants, but she wants me... and only me...' Ranma's thoughts died a swift and pleasurable death as he saw Kasumi's lips moving toward his, but he did nothing to stop their progression... in fact, he welcomed them.

Just as she had done right after she had woken up, Kasumi meshed her lips with Ranma's, but unlike his reaction earlier in the morning, Ranma returned her kiss just as passionately.

Somehow they had moved, or had been moved, into Kasumi's room. A fact which Kasumi, unknowingly, took full advantage of as she used her hands to gently reposition Ranma, causing him to fall on top of her bed. Ranma's reaction to the sudden jolt was to part his lips a bit, which was all Kasumi needed, allowing her to force her tongue into his mouth. Ranma was stunned at Kasumi's aggressiveness, but it quickly disappeared, and soon their tongues were dancing together.

As their mouths came together, their hands didn't stay idle. Kasumi's hand continued to massage his taught stomach as the other hand had worked its way up to Ranma's chest. Ranma's hand freely roamed Kasumi's body, every time he touched a sensitive spot and caused her to shiver; he paused to pay more specialized attention to that spot eliciting moans from Kasumi, which were only muffled by their kiss.

* * *

As Nodoka made her way from the doorway of Kasumi's room she had a happy grin on her face, and with each sound coming from the room her grin became wider and wider as one thought consumed her entire being: 'GRANDCHILDREN!'

* * *

It was over an hour later that Ranma and Kasumi finally emerged from her room. Both had healthy blushes decorating their faces as they rejoined their mother. 

Ranma looked at his mother and saw that she appeared to be disappointed and a bit agitated, "Mom, what's wrong?"

"Phhht...all you two did was kiss." Nodoka sounded agitated now.

Ranma, of course, had no clue what his mother was talking about and replied with a, "Huh?"

That was when Kasumi walked up to Nodoka and gasped. Ranma moved next to Kasumi to see what she was looking at, but only saw a television, "So, what's so special about a television?"

Kasumi temporary forgot her embarrassment and sighed in exasperation, "What's on the screen, Ranma?"

"A picture of your room," Ranma responded without really thinking about it. A second passed, then another, then a third, and finally, "Urk!"

Kasumi let out a breath as Ranma finally realized what was so embarrassing. She watched Ranma turn a shade red reminiscent of their mother's red highlights. Kasumi remembered that it was them, as in the 'them' that included her, which caused her embarrassment to return with a vengeance, she was quite impressive as she had managed to maintain a shade brighter then Ranma. 'If she pulls a couple more stunts like this last one, she'll get grandchildren a lot sooner then Ranma and I thought.' Through her blush she turned to Nodoka with a nervous glance.

Nodoka looked at her and, as if reading Kasumi's thoughts, the small smirk that both Ranma and Kasumi had come to fear appeared on her face.

Kasumi began to get very nervous, "Come on, Ranma... We have to... uh... go shopping and... umm... get stuff for dinner." Kasumi tightly gripped Ranma's hand and pulled him out of the house. Ranma's mind was still getting itself wrapped around the idea that there had been a camera in Kasumi's room.

"Ranma..." Kasumi uttered in a small and embarrassed tone.

Ranma, knowing she was thinking the same thing, took a deep breath and spoke, "Knowing mom, we should have expected something like this." Ranma then pushed all of the other thoughts out of his mind and concentrated on Kasumi.

Kasumi paused and thought about it, and about what both of her mothers might do, and reluctantly nodded.

"Nothing we can really do about it now so come on!" Ranma turned the tables and began to drag Kasumi along.

"Ranma... hey... come on, stop... Ranma... where are we going?..." Kasumi rambled on.

"SSShhhooooooppppiiiiiiinnnnnngggg..." Ranma wined.

Kasumi cracked a smile and then giggled at Ranma's long-winded, over-dramatic, high-pitched wine.

"Good, you're laughing again! Come on!" Ranma then slumped, "The things I must torture myself with to please the one I care for..."

* * *

Kasumi just wrapped her arms around Ranma's bicep and pulled herself closer to him. Then, with smiles on their faces, the two walked deeper into town. 

It only took ten minutes for the two to make it into the heart of town. Having people glance at them and start whispering to those around them for the first few minutes of their entering town was getting to Ranma, and he started to fidget. It was a few moments later when Kasumi pulled Ranma to a secluded spot and tried calming him down by kissing him.

"What's a matter, Ranma?" Kasumi asked after she broke the kiss, which achieved the desired result.

"It's just that I'm not used to this." Ranma admitted.

"What? You should be used to people staring at you by now." Kasumi spoke with a feathery smile.

Ranma chuckled, "Oh, I'm used to that, but for other reasons, not this one." Ranma gestured to Kasumi's arms wrapped around his.

"Do... do you want me to stop?" Kasumi hesitantly asked with a quivering voice.

"NO! NO! NO! It's just that, I kind of wanted to know why. That's all." Ranma had used his other arm to rub Kasumi's back.

Kasumi relaxed against Ranma's chest, "I think I know why. I think this community is very small, so everyone knows everyone else. Since we're new faces, all the people who see us become curious."

Ranma took a moment to think over what Kasumi said, and accepted it. Even if it wasn't true, coming from Kasumi, it served to calm his nerves. After a long moment together, Ranma pulled Kasumi back to the main street and the two began to window shop.

After twenty minutes, the two passed dozens of stores, but never entered one. Oddly enough, it was Ranma who realized that both he and Kasumi never had much and so they would only take what could get, never going out and getting something for themselves unless it was absolutely necessary. So Kasumi was surprised when Ranma pulled her into a store. When they entered the store Ranma saw something that made him smirk. When they stopped, Kasumi gathered herself enough to talk.

"Ranma, what are we doing in here?" Kasumi was confused as to why they were in that particular store.

Ranma looked at Kasumi, "To by clothes, why else would we be in here?"

"But isn't it expensive?" Kasumi had a bit of worry in her voice. She had seen one of the price tags and her mind boggled. She had never spent so much for clothing, and now Ranma wanted them to buy clothing from this shop.

"Its alright, I got some money." Ranma explained.

Kasumi slowly followed, she figured that Ranma could buy all he wanted, and she would just stand there and watch him shop.

The first item that Ranma picked up was a pair of blue jeans. The odd thing, to Kasumi, was that the jeans looked too small for Ranma's male body and to long for his female body. Kasumi was about to tell Ranma but he was studying them so intensely so she held her tongue. The next piece that Ranma picked out was enough to make Kasumi gasp in shock. It was a white halter-top that would expose Ranma's midriff. Kasumi did find it a bit odd that Ranma was buying cloths for his girl half, but it didn't really matter as Ranma was always Ranma, no matter the shape or form.

Ranma was making his way to the dressing area. Kasumi was quietly following behind Ranma as he moved through the store, and nearly bumped into him when he stopped at a stall and turned around.

"These should fit you, go try them on." Ranma then dropped the clothing he was holding into Kasumi's arms.

Kasumi was so surprised that all she could keep saying was, "But... but... but... but... but..." even as Ranma pushed her into an empty stall.

Standing outside the stall, Ranma spoke, "Now hurry, because we still have to pick up stuff for dinner."

Kasumi was still frozen in the stall and muttering the same word over and over again.

Ranma's voice became playful as he spoke his next few words, "Buuut if you want, I could go in there and help you."

That brought Kasumi back and her cheeks colored as she recalled the first time they made out earlier in the day. She was tempted to have him come in and try, but she didn't want to get kicked out of the store. She took off her dress, folded it and carefully put on the foreign articles of clothing she had acquired from Ranma. After she finished dressing, she looked in the mirror and suddenly felt self-conscious. She opened the stall door and took small, reluctant steps until she was in front of Ranma and timidly posed for him.

Kasumi had closed her eyes as she waited for Ranma's opinion. As the seconds passed her nervousness grew towards agitation but she remained silent and waited, and waited, and waited some more. Finally reaching the end of her patience, her eyes snapped open in time to witness Ranma's eyes slowly roaming her body, his mouth opened to say something but nothing came. Normally, Kasumi wouldn't really care but having Ranma, the person she loved, look at her like that was a huge boost to her ego and confidence. Feeling bold, Kasumi swayed closer to Ranma, each movement designed to magnify her feminine charms, and doing so flawlessly. When she was close enough, she bent forward, giving Ranma a full view of her cleavage and held that pose until Ranma's eyes drifted downwards, "You like?"

Ranma's breaths came quickly and were very shallow. All he could do was nod once, his eyes never leaving the divine sight before him"

"Good..." Kasumi's husky voice left Ranma shivering in pleasure.

Kasumi stood up straight and slowly, sensually walked back into the stall. She could feel Ranma's eyes glued to her body the entire time as she made her way back. As soon as the door closed Kasumi practically collapsed onto the small bench in the room. Her breathing was now ragged and rapid as she thought, 'Kami, I've never done that before, but it felt so good.' She took a couple of minutes to let herself calm down, put on her old dress, now seeming rather tame, and stepped out of the small room.

It was a good thing Kasumi had taken the time to recover because Ranma seemed to have needed every second. When Kasumi stepped out in front of Ranma again, he had yet to completely recover, but at least he was capable of speech. It wasn't intentional, or maybe it was; either way, Kasumi had given Ranma a lot more images to play with in his dreams. When he saw Kasumi he said what he'd tried to say a few minutes ago, "Wow... beautiful... good... Kami-sama... hot... wow..." He was able to speak, but no one said it would be coherent.

When Ranma was able to figure out how to walk again, he led Kasumi to the cashier and paid for her outfit. Ranma and Kasumi entered another shop a few minutes later, and once again Ranma made his ways directly to the women's clothing section. Ranma picked up a white tube top, turned to Kasumi and held it in front of her. Unknown to Kasumi, Ranma had remembered all of those lessons his mother had tried to teach Ranko, and now was using that knowledge to his advantage.

Kasumi started to blush as she imagined herself wearing it, "Ranma, shouldn't you go get some clothing for yourself."

Ranma gently smiled as he shook his head, "No, I already have enough and I wanted to buy something for you."

Kasumi knew that this wasn't true as both she and Ranma didn't own much, and she knew she still had so much more than he did. Comparing the clothing they brought with them when they left the Tendo home, Kasumi easily had three to four times more then Ranma. This confused her as, if anything, Ranma needed the clothes more then she did, but everything Ranma was looking at or purchasing was for her. He never needed, and could never have, much on the road and would never buy anything unless he needed it, just... like... her... Kasumi wanted to kick herself in the shin. Like herself, Ranma wouldn't buy something for himself unless absolutely necessary, so someone else would have to buy that something for either of them. 'Ranma thought of this a while ago. That's why he's been leading me to all these places' Kasumi told herself, then she promptly latched onto Ranma's arms and dragged him over to the men's section.

"Hey! I'm not...done, yet!" Ranma protested as he was dragged off.

Kasumi worked quickly as she selected a combination that was similar to what Ranma had bought for her: A simple pair of blue jeans and a white t-shirt. Kasumi handed Ranma the clothing and shoved him into a dressing booth, a silent command telling him to try them on, or else. Ranma briefly blinked at the wall in front of him, then began to switch clothes. After all, he didn't want to see what she would do if he disobeyed her.

When Ranma finished getting dressed, he strode out of the dressing room and stood in front of Kasumi with an air of confidence. The jeans fit Ranma almost like a second skin, but the shirt was a bit loose on his upper body, she had to take into account Ranma's other form. This would work for now, but she would need to make some adjustments later, and she told Ranma to walk a few steps so she could see what she would need to do. She never saw if she needed to do anything because as soon as Ranma took the first step out of the booth, her eyes became glued to his muscles and the blue material that strained against his rippling form with every slight movement. Out of the corner of her eye, Kasumi caught the sales girl directing a hungry look towards Ranma. This made her ego grow a bit bigger because she knew that she and Ranma were committed to each other. Now, normally one would think that Kasumi would become territorial and attack the female who wanted to chase her mate, but with Kasumi, Ranma received her, well deserved, total and utter faith. Ranma stood there waiting for Kasumi's judgment, and was growing anxious due to her extended silence.

"Very nice." Kasumi finally spoke to Ranma.

Ranma was visibly relieved as he heard Kasumi complimenting him. He turned to re-enter the stall and thus failed to notice that both girls had their eyes glued to his powerful and well-defined muscles.

As soon as Ranma had finished getting back into his street clothes, Kasumi escorted him past an envious sales girl and paid for Ranma's new clothes.

For the next few stores a pattern developed. Ranma would choose clothes for Kasumi and after he sent her to model the selections for him, they would switch roles and repeat the process. Somehow, the modeling part became a bit of a competition, one would pose and try to get a reaction out of the other then, when they traded places, the person doing the modeling would try to get a better reaction then before. Kasumi, much to Ranma's agitation, easily won. As a man, Ranma had used his natural charm and a smile, unlike as a woman where he had learned to use his 'gifts', usually for free food and such. Another facet that led to Ranma's downfall was that Kasumi was able to hide her reactions more effectively. In the end, both Ranma and Kasumi were having a wonderful time teasing and being with each other.

Kasumi looked around while she and Ranma were walking amongst the stores and saw one that sparked an idea she was sure would make either of her mothers beam with pride. Telling Ranma she was thirsty prompted a stop at a vending machine for a cold drink, and she started enacting the plan she had come up with. Kasumi looked around to see if anyone was looking, and when she saw that there was no one in their immediate vicinity, Kasumi turned to her target.

Ranma watched as Kasumi purchased a bottle of water from the vending machine, but didn't think much of it. After all, if Kasumi wanted bottled water, who was he to question her choice of drink? Ranma had taken all of two steps when Kasumi upended the bottle over Ranma's head. Ranma sputtered and spun around to ask Kasumi why she did that, but her words died in her throat when she saw Kasumi's expression. Ranma froze as Kasumi took a couple seconds to openly admire him, now her, in her wet shirt. A reawakening part of Ranma's mind became aroused as Kasumi looked at her in that way, but that part of Ranma was also lost to the emotional response that the rest of her was now feeling. Ranma watched as Kasumi's delicate lips formed a smirk, and it wasn't one of her normal smirks, oh no, it was the same exact smirk Ranma herself, or her mother, used when they were planning something mischievous. To see it on Kasumi's heavenly features scared Ranma shitless, and froze him in place.

Taking advantage of Ranma's apparent inability to move under his own power, Kasumi pulled Ranma towards the street but after only a handful of steps Ranma seemed to completely lose his willingness to move. After a couple of futile attempts to pull Ranma along, Kasumi licked her lips as an idea came to her. Fortunately for Ranma, Kasumi's was plan was quite pleasurable: Kiss her till she can move again. Kasumi initiated the kiss and forced her tongue into Ranma's mouth. It only took Ranma half a second to instinctively respond to the kiss. A few minutes later Kasumi broke contact, leaving Ranma in a daze and wanting more. Kasumi knew the kiss didn't have to last quite that long but she enjoyed it too much to want it to end so soon. After Kasumi reluctantly released the kiss, she led the stupefied Ranma into a store.

The only living Enjeru family member, in her over-eagerness, had forgotten to look through nearby windows before initiating the kiss, and had inadvertently put on a show for a small bar/restaurant whose customers had had a perfect view of the lip lock. Nearly all of the men complained about how all the pretty girls were lesbians. Unfortunately, not all the men were single and those who weren't got slapped and/or glared at by their significant other, leading to days or even weeks of begging for forgiveness. Not all of the women acted that way, of course. Some wondered if they could join in and others were indifferent, believing that a person's choice was their own. Then, there were some women who were attached that were openly leering at the busty redhead and the elegant chestnut haired girls. The partners of those women weren't sure if they should be angry, worried, or excited.

"Ranma... Ranma..."

Ranma blinked and saw a hand being waved in front of her eyes, "Huh? wha...what?"

"Go try this on." Kasumi hid a small smile.

"Okay..." Ranma took the clothing without really paying it any attention. She walked into the booth and held the item in front of her body and looked in the mirror...

The longer Ranma was in the stall, the harder it was for Kasumi to hold in her giggling. She had tried to hide a smile, but that proved impossible, so she settled for trying to not make any noise.

"AHHHHHHHHHH!" Ranma nearly tore the door off the dressing room, "This is...this...is..."

"What you wanted to go shopping for." Kasumi calmly replied.

Had Ranma not been so disturbed, she would have seen that amusement was clearly evident in the former Tendo daughter's eyes.

The piece of clothing Ranma held in front of her was plain white lingerie. It wasn't made to be sexy, or anything, but Ranma's figure could make almost anything sexy. "But I wanted to get the lingerie for you to wear, not me."

Kasumi took a second to study the article of clothing, then Ranma, "Hmmmm... You're right. You can't. At least, not with your body, you can't... You wouldn't look very good in this at all, would you? You're right, it probably would look better on me." Kasumi then snatched the lingerie from Ranma and made her own way to the dressing room.

Ranma may not have liked his cursed body when she had first got it, but even she knew that she was beautiful and desirable and Ranma always took pride in that fact. Now that she was starting to enjoy her female body she was not going to let a challenge like that slide.

Kasumi was taking her time and had almost made it into the stall when Ranma brushed past her, grabbed the lingerie, and shut the door to the booth with an audible click, 'It's all going exactly as I planned it.'

Ranma had undressed and put on the lingerie when her mind caught up with what she was doing, 'Aww...man. Damn me and my pride.' Ranma began trying to think of a way to get Kasumi back, but nothing immediately came to mind, so she took a moment to study her reflection, 'I seem to make everything look good, and Kasumi could have found me something better. Her taste in... clothing... is... so... tame...' had someone been looking they would have sworn they'd seen a lit light bulb appear above Ranma's head. 'I could tell her the truth...'

Almost as soon as she got the idea, Ranma came up with a plan to get back at Kasumi. With a general idea of what she wanted to do, Ranma walked out and took a pose in front of Kasumi. Ranma had both arms behind her back with one hand holding her other wrist and she stood with her feet close to each other. She also bent her upper body forward, not quite enough to expose her cleavage, but enough to tease Kasumi. When she spoke, her voice was sweet and innocent and, somehow, managed to be sultry and sexy at the same time.

"You know, Kasumi, this looks very good on me, but then I make anything look good. Your choice is, well... tame. You could have picked something better for me. Maybe you should stay with getting clothing for my other body, that way anything you pick would look good."

When Ranma stepped out of the changing room and stood before her, it mesmerized Kasumi. Kasumi could feel a shot of anger as soon as she understood that Ranma had insulted her taste in clothing, but that was mixed with shock a few seconds later when she realized Ranma had managed to do it subtly. She stayed still long enough for Ranma to change, go pick something else out, put the selected items in her hands, and shove her into the stall.

Kasumi looked at the lingerie in her hands and had to admit that it was a lot more revealing then the one she picked for Ranma. It was white and still covered most of her body, but most of the material that made up the one piece was see-through translucent with some solid white satin placed in certain areas to keep the wearer covered. She quickly slipped it on, still simmering about Ranma's miraculously subtle insult. When she walked out of the dressing room, Kasumi made sure that she had Ranma's attention, and glided over to Ranma sexily, took the same pose Ranma had earlier, and spoke to a now stunned Ranma, "You like?"

Thus began the lingerie wars...

* * *

Ranma and Kasumi were both flushed as they made their way to the open food market. Both were shocked but not to embarrassed about what they had just done. Each had bought two pieces, each more risqué and exposing than the one that was picked before. Ranma's thoughts were centered on the idea that Kasumi looked, well...tasty. Kasumi's thoughts were a bit more varied but somewhere in her Nodoka corrupted mind, similar thoughts kept cropping up. Kasumi had kept having difficulty remembering that the two of them were supposed to get dinner materials or their mother would get annoyed. That was something neither of them wanted. So during their last exchange, Kasumi pounced on Ranma while wearing practically nothing, leaving the nearly comatose Ranma in a state which gave her enough time to get dressed, search Ranma for the stash of money, pay for their things, and pull Ranma to the street. Kasumi was amazed at the reactions her looks gave to the lingerie clad Ranma but she took a lot of pride in the fact that she could induce reactions equal, or maybe even stronger than, those of Ranma. Given all of the teasing and intimate positions that the two of them had been in, she should have been surprised at her behavior or responses. She was surprised at Ranma, though, going through all of the same experiences that she did, Kasumi would have thought that Ranma would be more used to these kinds of situations, but she was almost as innocent and naive as when she first arrived at the Tendo home. 

When the two girls neared the open market they were acting so differently that no one would have guessed at their behavior a few minutes prior. As the prospect of food presented itself, Ranma set herself off on the unsuspecting vendors, and with her hands firmly on Kasumi's she forced the other girl along. Oddly enough, the two of them made an interesting pair; Ranma was wild, shameless and animated, while Kasumi was meek, embarrassed and shy.

Entering their second home, Ranma was carrying multiple armloads of bags filled with food and clothing, as was Kasumi. At the door Nodoka watched as her daughters walked into the kitchen with their purchases.

"I see you two have been busy."

"Uh-huh." came the muffled reply form her redheaded daughter.

Nodoka quickly and efficiently began putting the food away, but paused as she saw a store's seal on one of the bags. She raised one eyebrow and turned to Kasumi.

Kasumi saw her mother's inquiring look and saw the bag Nodoka had paused at... and every thought in her head disappeared, "Ranma wanted to..." She spoke the first words to come to mind and, unfortunately, deferred to Ranma.

Ranma picked up the statement, trying hard not to swallow her foot, "Practice!" and failing.

Kasumi's jaw really hurt from its attempt to hit the floor.

"Oh well, don't let these groceries stop you, let me take care of them so you two can have more time to yourselves."

"Thanks, mom." Ranma called back as she grabbed a shocked Kasumi and pulled her toward the stairs.

* * *

Kasumi walked into the living room, relieved. It had taken her a while to figure out what Ranma was talking about during the flirting they did while buying the dinner ingredients, though it was embarrassing, it wasn't as humiliating as talking about their sex life. A happy male Ranma followed Kasumi as the two of them quickly made their way into the kitchen and began to help Nodoka with dinner. 

"Apparently, you both enjoyed your little shopping spree. You even went to one of my favorite shops." Nodoka developed a far away look, "Seeing those bags brought back a lot of fond memories of Kimiko."

Ranma thanked his mother, though he didn't really understand why a bag would remind his mother of Kasumi's, so he just nodded and smiled.

Kasumi, when she heard Nodoka's words, paled. She then watched Nodoka look at her and felt like she was watching a train wreck, as a spark of reconciliation grew in her mother's eyes. Kasumi only thought was, 'She knows that I know!' and she felt like crawling into a cabinet to hide, eternity couldn't be that long, could it? Kasumi was pulled from her plans for the future when Ranma asked a question.

"Mom, what's that?" Ranma was a bit pensive.

Nodoka and Kasumi both looked at the object Ranma had pointed at. Kasumi instantly knew why Ranma sounded pensive; it was the television screen that still showed a picture of her room.

"Just some old video of Kasumi's mother and I." Nodoka replied and noticed the relief in Ranma's face and tried to figure out why he was so relieved. Ranma's mother looked at her son, then at the television, then her daughter, and back to the television. "You thought that I would put a camera in Kasumi's room to record my son's special moments?"

"Urk!" came the dual reply.

"As much as that is a great idea, I know that you, Ranma, have never received any kind of privacy, either due to your father or at the Tendo dojo thanks to Nabiki. I want to give you the privacy to do whatever you want on your own, and since you have done nothing wrong to deserve that privilege to be violated or revoked." Nodoka started speaking in a light humorous tone but she had taken on a very serious tone at the end of her rant.

Oddly, Ranma began to speak meekly, "Then...then how did you know that the only thing Kasumi and me did was kiss this morning?"

"Ranma, you know that I practice the art, right?" seeing her son nod Nodoka continued, "I am able to see ki and chi flows and a virgin has a slightly different aura from a person who is not and you and Kasumi are still clearly virgins."

"Oh..." was the only thing a red faced Ranma could say.

"Although, I would love it if I received a grandchild in nine months." Nodoka sighed, "You two are cruel, making me wait this long, but I guess it's your choice. I had a few more things I wanted to try, but I guess I'll let you two take as long as you need."

Ranma and Kasumi had the urge to devote themselves to whatever god or goddess had prompted Nodoka to say that last sentence.

"Enough talk of depressing topics, are you two going to help with dinner or not? Oh and I think you might like this particular video." Soon the delicious scent of dinner filled the house, along with the sounds of Kimiko's sixteenth birthday.

* * *

Ranma knew that Kasumi was an early riser, so he had gotten up earlier then usual, in hopes that he could wake her up. It was a teacher's job to wake the student after all, and he didn't want a lazy student. The thoughts of Kasumi's nightie never entered his thoughts...really...kind of...well not for very long anyways. 

Sadly, when Ranma checked, Kasumi's bed was neatly made so, dejectedly, Ranma made his way to the wash room and cleaned himself up. Once he made his way to the kitchen, he spotted the object of his desires in the main room, engrossed in scrolls of her school. Kasumi was also dressed in a pristine white gi tied together with a white belt.

"Kasumi..." Ranma asked with a raised eyebrow.

Kasumi looked over to Ranma and started to rub her hands nervously, "I couldn't sleep, so I came down here."

Ranma could understand why, Kasumi was asked by the spirit of her mother to continue the art that she had given up in her youth. She wasn't sure if she could do it, or live up to her mother's expectations. To try and calm Kasumi's nerves, Ranma put on a gentle and supportive smile, "I guess I don't have to ask if you're ready?"

Kasumi took a breath, stood up and, with that signal, the two of them walked to the dojo to begin.

In the dojo, Ranma was about to instruct Kasumi on the warm up exercises, but was greatly surprised as Kasumi began to go through the exercises easily and with no errors.

Kasumi saw Ranma's reaction and paused, she then blushed and looked sheepish, "I kind of spent a lot of time watching you do them."

Ranma opened his mouth to try and embarrass her more, but stopped. In this place they were not boyfriend and girlfriend. Here, they were teacher and student, so he nodded and continued.

Once their warm-ups were done, Ranma spoke, "Now Kasumi, we're not going to start with a kata from the scrolls, but one from anything-goes because I want to judge where you are at the moment and how hard I can push you at this point."

Kasumi nodded and watched Ranma carefully as he preformed a basic anything-goes kata. When he finished, she mimicked the stance and began the kata herself. As she worked through the kata, Ranma watched her intently. Normally this would fluster her but she too, like Ranma, recognized that here, their relationship was different. Ranma corrected her when she made a mistake and had her run through the kata a few more times to make sure she didn't have any reflexes that needed to be broken.

At the end, Ranma nodded, "Very good. Do you remember how far you were when you stopped practicing?"

Kasumi shook her head, "No, but when I went through the scroll earlier I recognized almost all of the techniques. I think that I stopped when I was somewhere in the intermediate level."

Ranma thought about what Kasumi said, "It's been so long since you practiced, so we're going to start from the beginning, okay?"

Kasumi straightened up and replied, "Yes, Sensei."

With that settled the two of them sat in the middle of the dojo and began to go over the scrolls of Kasumi's school.

Over the next week, Kasumi quickly relearned the basics of her school. Early in the week Ranma had tried to test Kasumi's learning abilities and was amazed. Although, nowhere near Ranma's own learning curve, Kasumi's was no less amazing. Within four days the girl had learned that kata. 'Learned' was a weak word to describe what Kasumi had done; she didn't just memorize the kata, she began to do the kata with unearthly grace, something similar to a master. If that was how quickly and how well Kasumi was going to learn everything, Ranma easily understood why Kimiko fought with Soun to teach Kasumi the Fallen Angels' School of Martial Arts. Kasumi was... is... a prodigy in her own right.

During the following week, Ranma and Kasumi spent eight to twelve hours a day training. Their day usually followed the same path, wake up, get ready, train, eat, train, eat, train, bathe, spend time with each other and/or their mother before and after dinner and, finally, sleep. Then, on the next day they would repeat the process. This was normal for Ranma, but he wanted to ask Kasumi why she was subjecting herself to this life style. Ranma had become curious because, yesterday, he watched as Kasumi modified a kata to do her household chores. At first he was going to leave it alone, but it kept nagging at him throughout the entire day, so he was going to ask about it in the morning. When Kasumi entered the dojo and was about to start her warm up exercises, Ranma stopped her, "Kasumi?"

The girl stopped and looked up, "Yes, Ranma?"

"I was wondering... why do you train so hard?" Ranma had paused slightly, not sure if he should be asking.

Kasumi closed her eyes in thought.

After a few minutes Ranma thought his questions had been too intrusive. "It's okay, you don't have to answer."

Immediately after Ranma said that, Kasumi answered him, "Ranma, you know that my mother asked me to start practicing the school, knowing that I am the last to practice it, right?" She looked at Ranma, who nodded, then continued, "Being the last of a school means that I am or am going to be the grandmaster of the school..."

Ranma eyes widened as he realized that fact.

"...making the art a major part of my life. To become a grandmaster I must have an enormous amount of dedication, and my life has to be dedicated to the art. I only know a few people who would be near the level of a grandmaster, and I have tried to be like one of them. I want to become a martial artist that won't betray the title of grandmaster."

It didn't take Ranma long to realize that she was talking about him. He had said that the art was life, and it seemed Kasumi was taking that philosophy to heart. Ranma nodded to her and began to stretch, an action that was quickly followed by Kasumi. Ranma was going to take Kasumi's training to another level, if she was going to be a grandmaster, Ranma was train her and keep training her until they mastered the Fallen Angels' School of martial arts, and Kasumi could confidently call herself Grandmaster of the school.

* * *

Author's Notes: As always, I would like to thank my pre-reader DelShalDar. 

Anyways, as always, you can leave a review or e-mail me a comment at:

tsunami(underscore)saotome(at)yahoo(dot)com

I would like to thank everyone you took the time to review my story even those who took the time to read it. I hope hear from everyone again and hopefully even more people.

Reviewer Responses:

Wonderbee31: I like Nabiki so she won't be to bashed in this story. I'll get to her in the next chapter. The others are going to attack Ranma's loved ones but I not good at writing fight scenes (or at least I thinks I'm no good) so I came up with some non-violent ways do deal with them.

glazedlookineyes101: I happy you find my story interesting. The part interlude into Nerima was suposed to happened last chapter, at least thats what I had planned in the orginal outline but I started to write more details into each scene so that didn't happend, but don't worry a part into Nerima is planned for the next chapter.

JonnyG: You know I recently went back to reread my old notebooks and found that this story was to be a drama and romance story but it became waffy not what I had orignally planned but I still enjoy writing this story none the less.

Rubel: I plan on moving this story a bit slow but I will deal with all of the NWC eventually.

shinji the good sharer: You and you toys smily face. Sorry I haven't logged on my IM lately but I just don't really feel like chatting lately.

James Axelrad: I though that if I picked a unique name it would cause Nabiki to find them sooner, So I look on the internet for the most common japanese family names and found Inoue all so Nodoka is a fairly common first name so I figure that would throw Nabiki off. Also there is another reason but you'll have to keep reading to find out :)

Lerris: What you said is true, but I don't really like those three and that come out in my writing esspecially when I am free writing.

nonengel: WOW! I almost caused you tears. That is as amazing as Ranko telling me I'm funny. :p

SSJGuyver: The best you've read ina while that doesn't seem likely but thank you for saying that.

Hiryo: Hmmm... I should blame you for the update taking so long. ;)I'll read anything that is a NON akane pairing so I spent a lot of time reading the stories in you C2 archives. Geart Archive. Yes he will meet his aunt and uncle but that will be in a later chapter.

Goku: The interlude to Nerima was to happen last chapter but It didn't don't worry its going to happen in the next chapter.

Oh and flames will be tossed into Akane's cooking. Then when they're alive be force fed her cooking to die a slow, painful death.


	7. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I don't own Ranma 1/2 and am doing this for the fun of it.

Authors Note: Shameless plug in the AN at the end.

Only you...

By TsunamiSaotome

True to Ranma's thoughts, he started to train Kasumi a lot harder. Kasumi had just restarted her training, so Ranma was training her body to be able to handle more demanding techniques and not teaching her new techniques. In the morning after warming up and breakfast, Ranma would go over the katas they had done in the previous few days. If he judged her to master one of the kata, he would teach the next one described in the scrolls. If not, they would just work on the old katas for the next hours. After that Ranma would put Kasumi through either speed, agility, strength, or stamina training, followed by lunch, a brief rest period, then more speed, agility, strength, or stamina training, then they would rerun through that mornings katas again and finally dinner. That was considered to be a full day, but there were other days that their routine was different. Once in a while both would skip out on either the morning or/and the afternoon training session, and do other things, like spend time with their mother or each other, clean the house, or just relax for the day. In the three months that passed since they started to train there was only one minor event that disrupted their training.

A month and a half ago, while running on a trail around the Inoue home one of the rock on a steep path the two were running on gave way when Kasumi stepped on it. She managed to stay upright even with the weighted clothing Ranma had asked her to wear while training. The problem was that she landed awkwardly and strained a muscle. Ranma had quickly abandoned the exercises for the day. When he examined her he thought that it was only a strain but wasn't sure. He cradled her in his arms while she was protesting and grimacing at the same time. Ranma knew that they were pushing Kasumi's training, but what was the point of training if it was going to do more harm then good? Once he pointed that out, the older girl stopped her protesting and let herself be carried back home. Nodoka had confirmed Ranma's assessment and ordered her daughter to rest for a few days. Kasumi complained about not being able to train, but again Ranma stopped her by saying he'd had something planned for when she got hurt. Both women were stunned that Ranma had thought ahead.

The next morning, when Kasumi hobbled her way into the dojo, Ranma stopped her from doing warm-up exercises and told her to go into the middle of the garden. When Kasumi got there she saw that there was an open grass patch next to the pond. Ranma instructed her to carefully get into a lotus position and began to tell her how to meditate. Like every other exercise she been taught so far, she was able to understand fairly quickly.

Their first session didn't really go as planed, within ten minutes Ranma had fallen asleep and was pushed into Kasumi's lap by a gust of wind. Kasumi didn't have the heart to wake him, so she got out of the lotus position and let Ranma use her lap as a pillow for the rest of the morning. That pretty much stopped any thoughts of training for the rest of the day. When Ranma awoke he apologized, promising her that he would make it up later that night. Kasumi just smiled and nodded, wondering what Ranma was going to do that night. They spent most of the rest of the day with their mother just being together.

Later that night, Ranma told Kasumi to go into his room and wait. By that time Kasumi's curiosity was overflowing. A bit earlier, Ranma had gone into town without letting Kasumi come along, stating it was for a surprise that night.

-FLASHBACK-

Kasumi sat nervously on Ranma's bed. She had been waiting for this all day; especially since Ranma went to town and didn't let her go with him. Moments later the door slowly opened and Ranma stepped in holding a paper bag with a store seal she didn't recognize.

"Kasumi lay down on the bed with your back to me." Ranma instructed.

Kasumi quickly complied, resting her head on her forearms. Kasumi laid there with the anticipation inside her growing. She took a couple of deep breaths to calm herself. In the middle of releasing her second breath she felt Ranma's hands start to massage her back. Within seconds Kasumi was in bliss every time Ranma's fingers worked their way deep into one of her muscles, and she released a deep moan. After a couple of minutes of this, Kasumi regained a semblance of coherent thought.

"Ranmaaaaaaaa...what was -moan- in the bag uuunnnnnnn..."

Ranma didn't even pause in his ministrations as he answered, "Oil and stuff. I didn't want to get them on your clothes, so I didn't use them."

Kasumi rolled what Ranma said around in her pleasure-clouded mind for a second. Then snapped her eyes open and rolled off the bed.

"Kaaaaaaaaaaa..." was the only thing a confused Ranma was able to get out of his mouth.

In the time it took Ranma to speak that one partial phrase, Kasumi's dress had pooled on the floor, and she was in the process of taking off her bra. Ranma spun around so fast that he nearly twisted the top mattress off the bed. Half a second later, he felt something clip the back of his arm; his eyes widened as he watched Kasumi's bra land on the floor in front of him. A few heart beats later he heard sounds of Kasumi getting back on the bed, and on turning around he noticed that Kasumi had made herself comfortable in his bed. He blushed a bit deeper as he realized that he could see the side of her breast. She was in the same position she had originally occupied, only his blanket was also pulled up to her waist, leaving everything above that point exposed.

"Use...It...Want...Now...Badly...Please..." Kasumi's sultry moaning sent shivers through Ranma's entire body.

Ranma's hand was shaking as he turned around to get one of the massaging oils he had bought earlier. When his eyes reached the bag with the oils in it his heart nearly stopped, his breathing became short, quick gasps, and a drop of blood fell from his nose. There, dangling on the bag, a pair of panties that matched the bra on the floor. His hand trembled around the undergarment as he randomly grabbed a container of oil. With the oil ready in his hands and hormones coursing through his veins, Ranma turned around and admired the beauty in his bed; a beauty that he unquestioningly knew was completely naked underneath that blanket. Suddenly, Ranma was no longer nervous; instead he was a bit excited. Letting a few of drops of oil fall on Kasumi's back, he moved his hand to work on her knotted muscles. He had only intended to massage Kasumi for around a half an hour but ended up being at it for well over an hour. It was a few minutes before he stopped that she fell into a contented sleep. Ranma was very tempted to carry Kasumi to her own bed and at the same time very nervous about the prospect of doing so when he considered her state of dress. In the end the cons outweighed the pros, especially if their mother saw them, so he covered Kasumi in his blanket and went off to sleep in one of the unoccupied rooms for the night.

-End Flashback-

Kasumi had been receiving massages regularly ever since, either once every few days or after a particularly tough day. His mother had also recently started to ask for massages of her own, something Ranma happily did for his mother. And though Nodoka was nowhere as enthusiastic about them as Kasumi, she still enjoyed the treatments very much.

Kasumi's training had slowed down a bit, but that wasn't due to her learning curve or the increasing difficulty levels of the techniques. The last of the intermediate scrolls held no techniques; instead they focused on developing the body's speed, strength, stamina and agility, many of the techniques that the two were already using, only on a higher scale. Along with building one's body, there were exercises to deepen ki reserves. Ranma didn't really need to relearn any of the exercises in the last few intermediate scrolls, so he lent his personal experience to Kasumi in order to help her learn them faster. This is where Kasumi believed she had stopped training because she didn't remember doing any of the exercises. Ranma understood why Kimiko had stopped there. At the time, when Kimiko was training her daughter, Kasumi would have only been nine or ten and her young body would not have been able to handle the stresses associated with such a large reserve of ki.

This was also the time when Ranma seriously started to spar with Kasumi. Most people would have been angry with Ranma for waiting this long to spar, but not Kasumi, she knew that Ranma knew that this was the best way to fine tune her skills. Ranma would come to her when he was ready. If not, she could always go to him. Ranma began their sparring sessions like he did with Akane. At first she thought that it was a way to test her control, and in a way it was, but Kasumi quickly found out that there were other benefits. Ranma stayed at a set speed, forcing Kasumi to abandon any thoughts of putting any real power behind any of her strikes. Ranma was a very good judge of how fast Kasumi could be for her skill level and set a limit just outside of what he thought was possible for her. At first their sparring sessions barely lasted half an hour before Kasumi would drop to the floor in exhaustion. As Kasumi began to hold up longer in the matches, Ranma started to throw attacks. Not very strong attacks, but quick and light enough to force Kasumi into tightening her defenses and perfect her technique. Then, when she got good enough to tag him a couple of times, he would congratulate her and increase his speed in the next spar.

Along with sparring, Ranma also started teaching Kasumi about ki, usually doing so on alternating days. To begin, Ranma asked her to meditate and look inside of herself for a surging core of energy, and for days Kasumi danced around her core of ki without being able to fully access it. They quickly found that her ki was very different from his; Ranma's was wild, Kasumi's was calm. Instead of opening the door and letting it rush out like Ranma did, Kasumi had to guide it out. After Kasumi gained access to it, Ranma had her mentally move it repeatedly through various parts of her body to create and strengthen the ki pathways in her body.

Within this last week Ranma judged Kasumi to be at the levels described at the end of the intermediate scroll that were required to begin training in the advance scroll. When the two of them looked at the advanced scroll for the first time, Ranma noticed something and asked Kasumi if they could examine all of the other advanced scrolls as well. Kasumi agreed and soon Ranma's suspicions were confirmed...

The Fallen Angels School of Martial Arts was an... Ariel Based School.

Ranma had recognized some techniques used to stay in the air for an extra split-second. That was why he had originally wanted to review all of the advanced scrolls. Now he knew why all of the ki exercises were emphasized so much for the intermediate students. Not only did they deepen ki reserves, they also allowed students to heal quickly if they got hurt and, finally, they allowed a student to use their ki to cushion their landings.

The first lesson for the advanced class was to learn how to fall again, but this time the student would use their ki to take the brunt of the damage, coupled with using the basic lessons for recovering from a fall. Reading through the text, Ranma realized that the same skill could also be used to soften physical blows as well. Kasumi's retraining on how to take a fall was completed very quickly, mostly due to the fact that Ranma had a lot of experience with falling.

Ranma quickly became much more confident in his teaching abilities once he was in his element: aerial combat. From then on, while he was teaching, he knew why a move was done or why a person's weight was shifted in a certain way. If not, he used his own knowledge of anything-goes and his incredible learning curve to figure it out. Now he could be a real teacher for Kasumi.

Today was supposed to be the day that Ranma helped Kasumi work on her balance using poles as footing, but the training area was unusable. It didn't matter if it was insects, animals, or time; the bamboo poles were either destroyed or just falling apart with age.

When Nodoka asked why Ranma and Kasumi had stopped training so early, Kasumi explained the problems with the training area.

"I see. Could you two finish making breakfast? I think I know of something that might help." Nodoka waited a moment to receive a nod from her son before leaving breakfast and going to her room.

Once in her room, Nodoka started to dig through her closet, through the piles of things she had accumulated in her past. There were certain items that caused Nodoka to pause and reminisce about the past and, frighteningly enough, there were even things that caused her to blush...

Something that could make Nodoka blush is definitely something that should not be unleashed on the general public...

After letting off a disturbing giggle, Nodoka found what she was looking for. It was a picture of her and Kimiko standing in a heavily forested area in front of a lake, or possibly a slow-moving river. Nodoka smiled and tenderly touched the picture for a few moments before getting up and going to her children.

The first to see her was Ranma, who had been kicked out of the kitchen. Why, you might ask? After Nodoka went to her room, Ranma had snuck up behind a busy Kasumi and captured her lips and tongue with a surprise kiss. While Kasumi was distracted, Ranma's free hand stole a fish from breakfast and as soon as he broke the kiss, which lasted many more seconds, he moved to the far end of the kitchen and began to eat his prize. Kasumi looked over at Ranma to ask what the kiss was for, and quickly discovered the answer to her question. Feigning a glare, she pushed Ranma out of the kitchen.

"What's that you got mom?" Ranma asked while trying to get a glimpse of the photograph in Nodoka's hand.

"Just some old memories." Nodoka replied and raised an eyebrow, "I thought you were helping with breakfast?"

"Eh...hehe...Kasumi kinda kicked me out..." Ranma embarrassedly replied with his right arm behind him, holding his pigtail.

Nodoka shook her head at her son's antics, "At least help me set the table for breakfast."

"Okay."

In a few minutes mother and son were sitting at the table waiting for their meal, using the time to talk about little inane things and how Kasumi was progressing in her training. It was a quarter of an hour later when Kasumi emerged from the kitchen carrying the food. She quickly joined the conversation as if she had been part of it from the beginning. From there breakfast proceeded like it had for the previous few months, with a lively, warm, and caring family atmosphere.

There was an unspoken agreement between Ranma and Kasumi that it would be a rest day. After the three of them cleaned up the remnants of their meal, Nodoka gathered her children to speak with them.

"Ranma, Kasumi could you two not train today? I want to show you something."

Kasumi looked at Ranma and the two nodded to each other. "Okay, Ranma and I weren't going to train today, anyway. So what did you want to show us?"

"I want it to be something of a surprise, so could you two go and get dressed for a picnic, and I'll get a basket ready?" Nodoka left them, making her way into the kitchen.

Ranma and Kasumi shared a look tinted with fear. Their mother having a surprise for them was probably not a good thing; surprises usually meant both of them would be horribly embarrassed. Lately, she hadn't been so bad, and Ranma and Kasumi shook their heads and cracked a smile; there was nothing they could do, so they'd deal with it as it came.

Something that neither had yet figured out was that Nodoka was not teasing them any less, but that they had grown used to their mother's quirks and, thanks to her, they had grown to be a bit perverted themselves, especially in their dealings with each other.

Soon after all of their preparations were completed the three of them were walking down another path that Ranma and Kasumi had yet to explore during their time at the Inoue home. The path was a bit rockier then the others and the trail changed from being surrounded by trees to walking above the tops of them. The scenery was much different from all of the other trails that Ranma and Kasumi had walked before, while being no less beautiful. Eventually, the trail started to descend again. The three of them soon found themselves in a small, hidden valley surrounded by walls of rock and earth. There was a slow moving river in the center with many trees in the surrounding area. The most notable land marks, other then the river, were two huge pine trees standing across from each other on opposite banks of the river. Ranma and Kasumi quietly followed Nodoka as she made her way to the huge tree closest to them. The three of then stopped at what looked like a makeshift table. The centerpiece looked like it had been cut from a huge tree, then cut in half vertically and, finally, laid on its side with the flat end facing the sky to serve as a table and smaller logs on each side to serve as benches.

While Ranma and Kasumi were looking at the area, Nodoka spoke, "Ranma, Kasumi you two can use this place for balance training. The bamboo shoots stopped being used because of this place."

"Huh? How?" Ranma looked around and saw nothing that would really help with the training except for the two large trees, but those could really only be used for a beginner as far as he was concerned.

"Ranma look at the other side of the tree." Nodoka told Ranma as she smoothed out the cloth that she used to cover their table.

Ranma looked at his mother for a second longer then went to see what was on the other side of tree. Ranma saw several notches carved into the tree to form a ladder and pegs hammered into the tree with branches beside them to be used by the more experienced martial artists. Ranma quickly hopped up the branches to a platform he hadn't seen from the ground, and noticed something else that he hadn't seen from below. There were four metal wires, most likely steel, embedded in the tree and running above the water into the other tree on the far bank. On closer inspection, Ranma saw that the new set of wires was added above an older set made of rope suggesting that this place had started being used a long time ago. Ranma's eyes followed each of the cables and saw that there were different colored tiles placed on top of them with varying distances between each tile. There were four different colors: white, green, red, and black. Ranma jumped onto a black tile, figuring that it was intended to be used for balance practice... and nearly fell off!

Ranma lashed out with his hand, grabbed one of the wires and flipped onto a white square which felt just as stable as the wire itself. He made his way back to the black tile and poked it with a toe, easily tilting the tile until it was perpendicular to the water below, but it didn't fall off. Ranma thought he would have to fix this before Kasumi could use it, and with that plan in mind Ranma hopped onto another black square and nearly lost his balance again.

'Weird... The white one was okay.' Ranma thought while maintaining his balance on the tile. He then decided to test all of the tiles and after a few jumps he realized that they were made that way on purpose, and were not broken as he had initially thought. He figured that each color represented a different degree of difficulty with white being the most stable, green being more difficult then white, red would be very difficult and black was the most difficult of the lot and only for the advanced, or better, students. Ranma smiled. This place was a very good training ground, and if a person fell they would hit the water. If the student could control their fall there would be no pain, if not it was really going to hurt. Ranma then began an advanced Anything-goes kata, and started bouncing from tile to tile.

Down below the two women sat and took part in one of their favorite hobbies: One watched her son use his art while the other watched the person she loved in the world she hoped would be hers soon. All too soon the show ended and Ranma jumped down towards them.

"Mom, this place is great; it's perfect for training." Ranma exclaimed as soon as he landed in front of them.

"I know, Ranma. You two are going to start training here tomorrow, right?" Ranma mother asked.

Ranma nodded, "Why'd you ask?"

"This place holds a lot of pleasant memories for me, and I'm very happy that you two will start to make your own memories here."

"Really, like what?" Ranma enthusiastically sat down, waiting for his mother to answer his question.

"I spent many, many hours here with Kimiko." Nodoka started.

Although Kasumi didn't outwardly show the same enthusiasm Ranma did, she still liked to hear stories about both of her mothers. As Nodoka continued, Kasumi quickly sat down next to Ranma.

"The one that stands out the most is this one time that she asked me to come here with her. Kimiko had tied two huge vines to a couple of the branches over the water and bound each of my wrists to a vine." Nodoka paused in consideration, "Hmmm...Now that I think about it, it was like one of those hentais that people like to watch these days. Those vines did look long and thick and tentacle-like..."

Kasumi nearly jumped to cover her mother's mouth, but caught Ranma looking at her then turn to look at two branches overhanging the water. Kasumi looked at the spot that held Ranma's attention and her imagination supplied her with a petite red-head dangling over the water, with a chestnut-haired girl walking on a limb parallel to the other helpless girl, slowly working her hands through the clothes of the girl hanging in front of her.

"...then she pulled it out. Kami! I don't know how she got it to move around like that, but it felt so good when she wrapped it around me, it was so hot and it felt like it was pulsing..." A moan then escaped Nodoka's throat as she relived some of the sensations that had long since passed.

Kasumi began to blush and every time Ranma looked at her, then to that spot over the water, she grew redder and redder.

Nodoka never noticed the children's reactions as she was far too lost in retelling her memories.

Kasumi's imagination supplied her with the images of her mother's story as it was being told. While her mind was occupied, her body started to try finding a way to satisfy the needs suddenly rampaging in itself.

"...and that is one of my favorite memories." Nodoka opened her eyes to where her children had been, and were not any longer. Hearing some rustling from behind the table, she got up to investigate. What she found prompted her to open her mouth to speak, but her better judgment kicked in and she found a place to sit and watch, instead.

Soon enough, Ranma's instincts took over and he began to use his hands to manipulate Kasumi body. In a matter of minutes Kasumi was arching her back in relief.

Nodoka was proud of her children and mildly annoyed at them, all at the same time. She was proud that, even under these conditions, both Ranma and Kasumi managed to stand by there convictions. The annoyance came from the fact that she would have to wait just that much longer for grandchildren.

Nodoka chose to speak as soon as Kasumi was comfortably nestled on top of Ranma, "Kasumi, I'm ashamed of you! Leaving Ranma unfulfilled like that." Nodoka crossed her arms in front of her, then shifted to a thoughtful pose, "Although, usually it's the man that leaves the woman needy."

It was at that moment when Kasumi realized that her mother had sat there watching the entire thing. She tried to stand and move away from Ranma, but her body was still suffering from the aftereffects of Ranma's ministrations. All Kasumi could do was tip herself over and fall on one of the makeshift benches next to the table.

"I...ummm...we...were...ahhh..." were Kasumi's words as she tried to fight through the bliss in her mind and body.

After a few moments Ranma stiffly got up and limped to the water, shedding his clothing as he got closer.

"Ranma! You're going the wrong way! Kasumi's over here!" Nodoka shouted the first thing that was on her mind.

Ranma ignored his mother and stubbornly made his way to the water. He hoped it was cold. God, he really hoped that water was cold or else he'd end up running back over there, even with his mother watching, and ravage Kasumi till they were both raw and unable to move for days.

By the time Ranma dove into the water, Kasumi regained enough of her senses to at least be able to think again. She looked around and couldn't find Ranma but she saw her mother setting the table. "Mother?"

Nodoka smiled when she heard her daughter call her "mother". It was something she loved and would always make her smile. Without turning around she answered her eldest daughter, "Hmmmm?"

"Where's Ranma?"

Nodoka's lips curved, and she then pointed to a trail of clothing which led to the water's edge, "He decided to go swimming."

"Swimming? But, we didn't bring anything to swim in..." her eyes widened as she inventoried each piece of clothing...

Ranma, in his struggle to reach the water, didn't care about what he was taking off as he stripped out of everything... including his boxers.

Kasumi couldn't help it as her eyes wandered to the water and found Ranma doing laps. Kasumi's body began to heat up again as she saw multiple red flashes from Ranma's, now female, body.

Nodoka turned to her dryer daughter and waved her off in a care-free manner, "Ranma seems to have found a way around that. You go join her and I'll call you both when lunch is ready."

"I uhhh... think that... I will...mmmmm... stay here and... ohhhhh... myyyyy... help you." Oddly enough, her eyes never left Ranma's lithe body.

For some unknown reason Nodoka didn't keep pestering Kasumi about going swimming and began to give her tasks to keep her busy instead.

Ranma, meanwhile, had cooled her urges sufficiently and realized that she was skinny-dipping and every time she surfaced to take a breath she glanced over to the shore. She wanted to go get dressed, but she couldn't do it with Kasumi staring at her like that. Although, she kind of liked the way the other girl was looking at her, but she really wanted to get dressed.

A couple laps later, Kasumi finally took her eyes off of Ranma, thanks to Nodoka. Ranma quietly snuck back and grabbed her clothes and then, behind another big tree, waited for them to dry sufficiently and re-dressed herself.

When Ranma stepped out from behind the tree, Nodoka called to her without looking up, "Ranma, could you come here for a moment I have something I want to talk to the two of you about."

Ranma quickly moved and took her spot next to Kasumi.

When Nodoka placed the last of the food in the basket on the table, she turned and addressed her children, "You both know that we can't avoid the people in Nerima forever, right?"

Both Ranma and Kasumi nodded.

"I'm sure that I'm not going to get any argument from you about this, but the first person we'll need to deal with is Nabiki." Nodoka stated with a dangerous look.

Kasumi opened her mouth to defend her sister, but hesitated. She knew that with everything Nabiki did to exploit Ranma, Nodoka had every right to be angry. As it turned out she didn't have to say anything because, strangely enough, Ranma was the one to defend Nabiki.

"Mom, I know that you're angry with Nabiki but please, don't be. I know that she used me, but it was so that she could take care of the Tendo dojo." Ranma stopped speaking for a moment, "Well, mostly for the dojo. I didn't like it, but it was the only thing that I could do. Me and… the old man ate a lot, so we used up a lot of money on food. I could have stopped or avoided her, but I didn't want to freeload. If you could, please find a good way to deal with her."

Nodoka closed her eyes and smiled, "Okay, Ranma. I talked with my brother a while back because I had a feeling you would feel that way, and this is what we came up with..."

* * *

Nabiki sat in her room; it had been months since Kasumi left with Nodoka and Ranma, right now she was thinking back to the first few hours after they had gone.

At first she was very angry at Nodoka for defending her son against Akane, but after some time she realized that she was being unreasonable and had gone back to apologize. By the time she returned it was too late and the three of them were long gone. When she realized that Kasumi was also missing, her first thought was that Ranma had somehow forced Kasumi to go with him, but half a second later she chided herself for such an absurd thought. The first thing she did was replay the surveillance tapes of the past couple of hours. She watched as Akane lost her temper for apparently no reason and Nodoka defend her son. She continued to watch as the idiot squad start screaming at Nodoka. Nabiki still winced at the memory of what Genma had said at the time; remembering the wave of sadness that had washed over her as she watched a strong woman being broken because of what the fat idiot was saying. Then came the guilt that followed from the way she had initially reacted, a guilt that had been gnawing at her mind and soul ever since she watched the video playback of that day.

Ever since the day her sister left, Nabiki had been scaling back her operations at school more and more with each passing week, only making enough to keep her home out of the red.

Nabiki chuckled at one of the few good memory that came from the whole situation. That night she was invited to a slumber party by some of her closest friends. Originally, she wasn't planning on going, but as soon she saw that Akane had invaded and conquered the kitchen; it wasn't a choice of whether she should go or not, the question became whether she should bring her green Sheer Mesh Chemise or not.

Nabiki cracked a smile at the memory of what she had seen as she walked into the dinning room on her way out the front door. Genma and her father were gagged and chained together and on the floor, and she judged from the amount of sweat and their pale complexions that they had been there for a while. The chains brought up questions of what types of...games her sister liked playing, questions she didn't want answers to at that particular moment...or ever, for that matter.

At that moment, Akane stepped out of the kitchen and asked her where she was going. Nabiki quickly replied that she was going to a sleepover, which caused Akane to remember being told about it earlier. Of course, Akane was a bit saddened that Nabiki wasn't going to be around to eat her cooking, but became happy again as Nabiki left with a parting comment of, "Since father and Genma have always told you about how much your cooking has been improving, the two of them will happily eat what you made."

Nabiki couldn't help but let out a small giggle as she relived the muffled, agonized screams and cries of the two old men. But all of Nabiki's mirth died as she thought of her older sister.

When she went into the kitchen she found that all of Kasumi's favorite things were gone. Kasumi had apparently taken everything that meant something to her, from the apron that belonged to their mother, to the apron that their mother bought for her, her own bowl and the notebook of recipes that their mother started and Kasumi continued. Nabiki thought Kasumi would have taken all of Ranma's things as well, but much to Nabiki's dismay, even after all this time Ranma had still been using the stuff meant for guests. This place was Ranma's home, but at the same time it wasn't.

It was during the sleepover that Nabiki decided to review that entire, fateful day. The touching scene between Ranma and her mother brought tears to the eyes of everyone in the room, even Nabiki's. As the tape continued, everyone was surprised as they watched the three women smiling in the video. Each and every one of them avidly watched a smile on Ranma face that none of them had ever witnessed. Nabiki focused Kasumi's smile; it was the only truly happy smile that Nabiki had seen on her sister's face since their mother had died. When dinner arrived on the screen, and Genma's words and the reactions to them were witnessed, one of Nabiki's friends had the nerve to walk up to her and smack her upside her head. After watching the tape again, Nabiki knew that she deserved her friend's reprimand and a lot more. After that, they watched as Ranma and Kasumi walked out of the Tendo home, hand in hand, never once looking back.

When the video finished, Nabiki started telling them about how guilty she felt. Once she had begun, she found she couldn't stop talking, and sometime during the bearing of her soul the tears started. Every girl in the room went and tried to comfort the distraught girl. Each girl in the room knew, and had the experiences to prove, that even the Ice Queen was human.

Once all of them had calmed down they began to talk, trying to figure out what had set Akane off. At first, they could find no apparent reason, but one soon became obvious.

About a week and a half before Ranma and Kasumi left, there had been two new transfer students. There was nothing special about them except that they had been best friends long before the transfer. On the day that Nodoka broke down, a few people had found out that the two boys were planning to confess their love to a couple of girls.

Nabiki quickly remembered that rumor; she had even helped spread it. After all, it was a rumor that couldn't really make her any money.

The girls that Nabiki had watching over Ranma's class quickly added that Akane had heard the rumors from Sayuri and Yuka, as well as many of the other students, talking about the boys intending their confessions for Akane. It was after lunch that Akane returned to class angry, and became angrier as the day went on.

Nabiki instantly knew what had happened. The boys had made their confessions at lunch, and not to her little sister, but to two of the girls who happened to be at the sleepover. Those two, by the way, were being stared at by the other four girls in the room as the discussion continued.

The two girls began telling the rest that, at the end of that school day, Akane had approached their new boyfriends with her I'm-a-really-sweet-girl act, but the boys had ignored her. They watched as Akane nearly lost her temper, but turned around and stomped away instead. Then they thanked Nabiki.

Nabiki was glad that she had made the rule that Akane was to stay away from her friends and their respective boyfriends. It had taken an extreme amount of effort to convince Akane, but she was glad she did. The reason behind Nabiki had done that to her sister was because at one point Akane had purposely caused a couple of boys to breakup with two of her close friends, who were also in the room, and then nearly crippled them when the boys returned to them.

After that, the group began to act like normal girls at a slumber party, though there was one last thing that bothered Nabiki from the rest of the party. She had talked to the two girls that had been dumped because of her sister's intimidation and one of them said, "Ranma isn't a person to leave situations open, and when he comes back it will be closed, no matter how cruel it is to Akane." Nabiki knew that statement would turn out to be true, and it would likely apply to everyone in Nerima, including her.

Nabiki decided to drop that particular thought for the time being. Whatever Ranma did to her, she deserved, and she would calmly accept it when it came.

Nabiki returned her thoughts to the present. As always, everyone had come to her in order to find out what information she had on the day after Ranma disappeared.

The Amazons:

Cologne had come and paid her quite a bi to search for Ranma. Shampoo came just about every day to see if she'd found anything out. Truth be told, she didn't look very hard the first two weeks, she didn't want to mess up her oldest sisters chances, and she definitely didn't want to send the Amazons after her. She had talked to a couple of people who were the last to see them but then the trail went cold. After the first two weeks she tried to find them to the best of her abilities, but still didn't find anything beyond that point. Whatever Nodoka did or whoever she hired was very good at not being found. After a month of failure, Cologne hired a private investigator from outside Nerima to look for them, and when the guy showed up asking her for information, Nabiki nearly broke a rib laughing after he'd left. If she couldn't find anything, there was no way some two-bit private eye could.

The only thing odd about the amazons was that Mousse had left two weeks ago from today and hasn't been seen since.

Ukyo:

Ukyo, too, had come to her for information and paid to be kept in the loop when any information was found. The only recent thing Nabiki had heard about Ukyo was that the quality of her food declined more and more the longer Ranma went missing.

Ryoga:

Ryoga hadn't been seen since a week before Ranma left. The only thing Nabiki could come up with was that he had found Ranma and hadn't made it back to Nerima yet. It was only a guess, but that was the most probable possibility she had come across.

The Kunos:

Tatewaki paid her every day since the disappearance, at an inflated rate, for information about his pig-tailed goddess, then proceeded to proclaim that he would set her free and got pummeled by her little sister. Nabiki found out from Sasuke that Kodachi had more or less imprisoned herself in her private wing of the Kuno mansion and had asked for weekly supplies to be delivered to the gates of that wing. Many students told her that they could still hear Kodachi's bone chilling laugh every time they went near the Kuno mansion. One thing that annoyed Nabiki was that Tatewaki made no mention of her older sister, but it could also have been considered a good thing.

The Tendo Dojo:

Nabiki started to smile as she remembered the changes that were brought about thanks to Ranma and Kasumi's leaving. Genma and her father had been chained to the dining room, attached to something that looked like a reel. It gave the two just enough freedom to move anywhere within the house, but it also allowed Akane to pull the two back to the table when her next 'meal' was ready. What had surprised Nabiki the most was that Genma hadn't been able to escape. She had expected her father wouldn't have been able to get free, but the chains were even able to keep Genma from escaping, which she found simply amazing. When her father came up with an idea for escape it nearly gave Nabiki a heart attack. Not because it was his idea, but that it was a good idea, and he'd come up with it on his first try too. He dumped all of the tea that Akane had made that morning all over the chain. The tea dissolved everything including the floor and the foundation underneath. Nabiki had ran out of string when she tried to measure how deep the hole went. Oddly enough, it ate through everything except the teapot, cups and chain.

Nabiki hoped she wouldn't have to deal with removing lava from the dining room any time soon.

Genma had actually called Soun an idiot... that just seemed wrong for Genma to call another person an idiot.

Genma's first idea was to use a jelly bean, something about "it'll get cavities and fall apart"...refer to the above statement. Some of Genma more 'brilliant' ideas had involved nail clippers, scissors, a rock, and trying to chew through it (which had cost Genma a couple of teeth). Genma also had the bright idea of forcing the chain to watch forty-eight hours of the Teletubbies and another twenty-four hours of Barney and friends, in the middle of the telethon Nabiki had to stop her father from committing seppuku, she also took the television away from Genma. Genma's last plan had sent almost all of the students at Furinkan running. The first few times Nabiki thought about it; she lost control of herself and laughed.

Now, wouldn't you be scared if you were walking in school, minding your own business and then all of a sudden the Ice Queen started laughing. Many of the students figured that the world would be ending soon and gathered the courage to do all of the things they never thought they could. So there were soon over a hundred new couples at Furinkan and many more students wound up getting grounded for life. Even Nabiki was confessed to a dozen times, and if that wasn't miraculous enough even Gosunkugi got a few love letter confessions.

It was a month and a half after Ranma and Kasumi vanished that Genma had had an epiphany after hearing some people make fun of marriage and calling it the chain of marriage. He figured all he had to do was cheat on the chain and it would break. For the next few days, Genma scoured the personal ads for a potential pawn. Soon after, Nabiki found both Genma and her father passed out in the living room with an ad in the paper circled:

Looking for a strong martial artist. Must not have any fiancées. I am well off and looking for a man to have a bit of 'fun' with, lots of stamina. Also maybe a possible bodyguard in the future. Long green hair and dark green eyes. Measurements: 32D-28-36.

Nabiki thought that it was too good to be true, but reasoning with the idiot duo was something not even Kami-sama could do, let alone a schoolgirl, even one with her substantial skills.

Genma's thought process went something like this:

'Looking for a strong martial artist.'

Yep, describes me perfectly. Even the master can't stand up to me if I use all of my techniques.

'Must not have any fiancées.'

A wife isn't a fiancée, so I don't have to worry about that.

'I am well off and looking for a man to have a bit of 'fun' with, lots of stamina. '

Money is good, and I can go on for twenty-two and a half seconds. Not many men have my monstrous stamina. (It should be noted that at this point that Genma was puffing his chest out with pride. And how did Genma come up with that kind of a time-frame? Well, the answer to that question was that he had timed all of his own experiences and twenty-two and a half seconds was his best time.)

'Also maybe a possible bodyguard in the future.'

Ahh... That's why she needs a strong martial artist.

'Long green hair and dark green eyes. Measurements: 32D-28-36.'

Decent enough, a man like me could do so much better, but I can't be too picky right now.

Genma had then set up a meeting for the following day. The woman had been very excited that a practitioner of Anything-goes had responded to her ad and, after questioning Genma to make sure that he wasn't Ranma, she happily accepted his invitation.

When the woman showed up, she introduced herself as Miaka. Nabiki was in shock, even though she didn't show it, that the woman was exactly as described in the ad. Miaka quickly discovered that Genma couldn't leave the house at the time, nor could Soun. Miaka stated that she didn't mind, so the three of them went to the guestroom to 'get to know each other better'. Soon enough, the moaning started; it quickly became too much for Nabiki, so she decided to leave the house and go for a walk. She didn't need to worry about Akane because, in a rare moment of intelligence, Genma had set the meeting on a day Akane was on an overnight trip. Nabiki was about to break into a run as soon as the screaming started, but part of her mind caught up to her and told her that the screams weren't of pleasure, but of horror. Nabiki quickly snuck back into the house, hoping that she wouldn't regret what she would see. What she saw made her close the door and begin laughing. She laughed all the way to her room and, after making sure that the recording equipment in the guestroom was working, she lost herself in the laughter. After half an hour of laughing, Nabiki made her way out of the house because she couldn't stay there much longer; her side was really starting to hurt. While Nabiki made her way down the street there was still a lot of screaming coming from her home. The only thing that differentiated it from the earlier screaming was that she could her hear father's voice and wailing intermixed with Genma's.

The middle Tendo daughter showed up at her friend's house, still giggling like a madwoman. This set off a bout of panic in her friend, but after a few minutes and a few phone calls, Nabiki had her inner circle of friends howling in laughter too. The main thing that seriously irked the girls, and would continue to do so for years to come, was the prevalent though of, 'How come all the cross dressers that come to Nerima tend to look so much more beautiful then we do?'

That night, when Nabiki was walking home, she felt that she should be mad at her father for cheating on her mother, but she wasn't. Her father was...moving on, so she was happy for him. She had to admit she also felt a bit vengeful towards her father for not being a parent when his daughters needed him most, so maybe this was some form of divine punishment or something. Whatever it was, she found she didn't mind at all.

That night, Nabiki wasn't sure if she'd be able to get any sleep at home, and almost went back to sleep at her friend's place for the night. In the end, though, she decided against it. If Miaka coming over was going to become a normal occurrence, she would have to get used to it. That night, she had the most restful night of sleep in her entire life to that point. All she could remember of the rest of the night was the men's screaming being drowned out by a musical laughter that seemed so very familiar.

The next morning, Miaka approached Nabiki to work out a deal about hiring the two men as her personal bodyguards. The moment Miaka had walked in, Nabiki had put on her business face. Miaka hadn't wasted any time and made an offer of two hundred thousand yen (around 1,700 US Dollars).

Nabiki's first, and only, thought was, 'Who in their right mind would pay that much for daddy and Genma? Ranma, yes…Most definitely…but, those two?'

Years of controlling her emotions allowed her to give no indication of her thoughts and caused Miaka to think Nabiki was hesitant to agree. This prompted Miaka to raise the pay to three hundred thousand yen (about two thousand five hundred US Dollars) for each man per week. Nabiki resisted doing a happy dance right then and there, instead she let out a sigh, acting like she was reluctant, and agreed, after stipulating that the job would only be taken if housing was provided. When Miaka asked why, Nabiki stated that she wanted to see what living on her own would be like, seeing as she was going to be heading to college soon, and Genma and her father could do a much better job if they were closer. Add to that the fact that Akane could use the opportunity to up her training in taking care of a home. Miaka thought about it for a second and then agreed to the terms, leaving just after stating that the contract would be drawn up and sent to her as soon as possible. Just as Mika was walking out the door, Nabiki suggested that she should take the two men with her in order to get them used to their new second home. With that in mind, Miaka dragged the two unconscious men away.

A week later, when Nabiki saw the two men, Genma looked happy while her father's complexion was a pale white and he was limping. She quickly learned that Genma could order any and all of the food he wanted and lazed around all day unless he needed to accompany Miaka somewhere. Genma was happy and she couldn't have that, so she manipulated Miaka into hiring Akane on as the men's personal chef. Once she did that, she congratulated herself on doing her good deed for the year. She had found her sister, father, and Genma very good paying jobs and the Tendo home and Dojo were finally financially secure.

The only bad thing to come out of all this was that she was forced to cook and clean for herself... that and she had to hire a maid to clean the house twice a week.

* * *

"I like that plan." Ranma nodded to herself. After a few moments of silence she started to fidget. Nodoka and Kasumi saw that Ranma was working herself up to say something else, so were patient and waited until Ranma was ready.

"There…there was one more thing I wanted to talk to both of you about." Ranma steadied herself and thought, 'I need to do this! I…I can't avoid it.'

Both women sat there with warm smiles, silently encouraging Ranma to tell them.

"How…how do I…I mean, how can…can I…" Ranma stuttered, "…start school again?"

Both Nodoka and Kasumi sat there and blinked twice, completely and utterly unprepared for Ranma's question.

Nodoka put her hand on Ranma's forehead to check her daughter's health. Kasumi moved her hand to pinch herself, but found Ranma's behind instead, causing Ranma's head to snap up.

"GAH!"

Nodoka looked at her older daughter with a raised eyebrow.

Kasumi's only response was, "This feels much better then pinching myself."

Nodoka conceded the point to her daughter. Then spoke to her son-turned-daughter, "Ranma, are you alright? I didn't expect that you wanted to go back to school."

A red-faced Ranma looked at Kasumi, who looked like all was right with the world and had no indication of moving her hand anytime soon. "I'm fine. It's just that…well…"

Sensing that this was difficult for Ranma, the two full-time females took a step away from him and waited.

"I wanted to, you know, make myself better." Ranma held her hand up to stop the other two from speaking. "I know that the two of you think I'm fine the way I am, but I still want to become a better person. I see Kasumi trying to improve herself every day and I feel like I'm cheating someone by not doing anything to improve myself. I know Kasumi loves the art, but I also know there are other things that she wishes she could do, like become a nurse or something. I feel that if I go to school, I can keep those options open for her and me too. The art will always come before our careers, but that doesn't mean we can't do something else at the same time. I also don't want to be seen as just a dumb jock. If Kasumi's husband was seen as nothing more then a brainless muscle-head I'd feel unworthy of her, like I insulted her."

"To be honest Ranma…" Kasumi began in a soft and caring voice, "I hadn't really thought that far into the future. It's true that I may want to have a career in the future, but that won't happen for quite a few years yet. I'm proud of you for thinking about the future and that you've begun to plan for it. I'm amazed that the great Ranma Inoue can admit that he's not perfect." she finished with a wink.

Ranma let off a long sigh and smiled, "Even for someone as great as I am, being compared to you tends shrink their ego."

"Very true." Kasumi then developed a seductive smirk, "You know, Ranma, if you wanted to play 'naughty nurses', we could have gone into town and found a costume or two."

"Oh no, if you two are looking for costumes, I have plenty. You don't have to go into town." Nodoka happily interjected.

"Are they clean, though?" Kasumi asked with an incredulous look.

"Yes!" Nodoka looked insulted.

Ranma shot his own skeptical look at his mother.

Nodoka's expression broke and turned sheepish as she began to blush, "Mostly…"

Ranma rolled his eyes, "The last clothing we borrowed from you were… crusty."

After Ranma said that, both she and Kasumi shuddered.

"Anyway, about going back to school…" Nodoka made a weak attempt to change the subject.

Ranma and Kasumi let their mother off the hook and shifted their thoughts to more serious matters.

Once Nodoka got her blush under control she said, "Although I didn't expect Ranma to broach the subject, I have talked to my brother about getting the both of you into school."

The young couple nodded and waited for her to continue.

"He could easily get the both of you enrolled in the private school near here."

"Uh…no offence, mom, but I'm not sure I'd like going to school with a bunch of rich snobs that act like any of the Kunos." Ranma felt a lot of discomfort just thinking about going to a school like that.

"Ranma, not all wealthy people act like that. I'll admit to there being many that do, but there are just as many who don't." Nodoka could easily understand where Ranma's point of view was coming from.

"Okay." Ranma could feel relief wash over his entire body.

"Mother you said 'both of us'; I've already graduated high school, so why would I need to go as well?" Kasumi had waited until she was sure that Ranma had no more questions before voicing her own.

"Well, Kasumi you have a choice. You see, the school is made of four main sections: grade school, middle school, high school and lastly a college. Students usually work their way through each section until they graduate college. Normally, a transfer student would transfer into their current grade level, but it works a bit differently when entering the college. There are two ways to enter the college: First, is going through the school from within or, second, to take the entrance exams like you would for any other college. You could take the entrance exam to get in or, since you mother was an alumni and you have very high-standing references, you could retake your senior year of high school at the private school and move on that way."

Kasumi sat there, silently absorbing what was just told to her.

"Personally, I would retake the last year of high school. It would give you a chance to get used to school again, and you could also stake your claim on Ranma so that no one will try to form an attraction with him in school. Oh, and of course you can show him off too."

Kasumi couldn't hold back a smile and a giggle, "I'll think about it."

Ranma laughed at his mother's reasoning. Truth be told, he knew that it was a bit selfish but he wanted Kasumi to go with him. He wouldn't tell Kasumi, though, because this was her decision to make.

After giving her children a couple of minutes to think about all that they had talked about, she made an announcement, "Well, now that all the important stuff for today has been taken care of, lets eat."

True to form, Ranma's stomach quickly growled in agreement.

* * *

Author's Notes: As always, I would like to thank my pre-reader DelShalDar, any reviewers and anyone who took their time read my story. I'm sorry that it took me so long to update but I tried to do something that I couldn't do. I tried to write an internal monologue for Akane and gave myself writers-block, then real life decided to shove the reason I don't like Akane or Akane-like characters into my face for a week and a half. After that, I more or less lost the will to write outside of my personal journal. On a good note my brother and his friends took me to my first anime convention (Nan Desu Kan) and that's why I started writing this story again. One of the scenes in this story came from a discussion we had. I wanted to try cosplaying and my brother suggested something simple like a school girl outfit and somehow it turned into a discussion about school girls and tentacle monsters. Go figure. Anyways thank you for reading and I will try to get the next chapter out sooner.

Shameless plug…There's a new site Church of Ranma and Kasumi 2 it is not there to replace the original CoRK but made to continue a seemingly dead site (I really hope that it's not dead.). Please go visit it and help the site grow.

Reviewer Responses:

ninofchaos, Dumbledork, LoneWolf3CC, Lord of the pit: Thank you and sorry for taking so long.

Wonderbee31: I agree that Kasumi does have the patience to reach Ranma level but it can't happen to quick so I hope that I can show that.

DJ Rodriguez: Thank you and no problem something bad will happen and it will be next chapter. The NWC will dealt with in due time. (Sinister smile!)

InsaneClarinetPlayingFFX-2Fan: I like Kasumi like characters and Ranma is one of my favorite male characters next to Morita-san from Honey and Clover and Ichigo from Bleach.

Shinji the good sharer: Sorry I have been anti-social later because of some bad memories being forced in my face again.

Protector from Chaos: I thought that Akane's cooking could eat through iron? J Thank You.

Goldfighter: I'm glad you think so and I will update as soon as I can.

JonnhyG: I thought the orgasm scene was funny but oh well. Conflict will come in the next chapter. The last chapter this one and the next were originally one chapter. I tried to write a bit of conflict into this chapter but it kinda threw off the stuff I had planned for the rest of the story so I decided to stay with this and I do agree that I need some more conflict in the story but it would quite fit into this chapter.

SSJGuyver: I don't know if it could be anywhere near Aijou & Aitou but I am very happy that you think so.

James Axelrad: Thank you for the suggestion; it has given me a couple of ideas.

Shadow.R.Chaos: Honestly I didn't plan for Kasumi to become a little perverted it just kanda worked out that way. I guess I like that idea cause in another free write I started Kasumi was a bit perverted in that story too.

Nonengel: Kasumi style will get better right now I'm just covering the basic stuff.

Lerris: Originally this was to be an aghast story where Ranma snapped and Genma ended up a bloody mess with his own muscle ripped out hanging in front of him, but I didn't like that so I did a complete 180 and it became a fluffy story.

Martrex: I think those are excellent suggestions, but I think you might like what I have planned.

Hiryo: Your question should be answer when Happosai shows up, until then my lips are sealed. :p Your C2 community does provide a good distraction/break.

SonPanSatan: Nodoka only thought about waiting for Soun to move on and didn't think about giving it to Nabiki. She was hoping for him to become the man he was before Kimiko past away. I find my Akane from real life experience I saw the results of some abusive bh and what she did to one of my family. I will not have that same thing happen to one of my favorite male leads.

Anyways, as always, you can leave a review or e-mail me a comment at:

tsunami(underscore)saotome(at)yahoo(dot)com

I would like to thank everyone you took the time to review my story even those who took the time to read it. I hope hear from everyone again and hopefully even more people.


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